Among eight vetoes issued Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear aimed at two of education’s most controversial topics this year: transgender student-athletes and “critical race theory.”
The omnibus Senate Bill 1, Beshear wrote in his veto message, “represents a step backward for public education in the Commonwealth.”
Its shift of principal and curriculum selection away from school-level councils of teachers and parents to superintendents “lessens, if not eliminates” parent voice, Beshear wrote.
It “unfairly singles out” Jefferson County’s school board, he continued, by limiting the board to one meeting a month and moving additional authority from the board to the superintendent. Such conditions would not apply elsewhere in Kentucky.
Track the bills:Where top education bills stand in Kentucky’s legislature
And language aimed at CRT fervor tacked into the bill would police needed classroom conversations on race and dictate how history is taught, Beshear wrote.
In a separate veto message, Beshear said Senate Bill 83 would ban transgender girls and women from playing on girls and women’s sports teams, beginning in sixth grade and running through college, without giving any reason why such a move would be necessary.
“If it were truly the intention of the General Assembly to prevent unfair advantage in women’s sports, it needed to look no further than the policies of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association,” Beshear wrote in his veto of SB 83.
Beshear said lawmakers failed to point out a single instance of a Kentucky child gaining an unfair advantage due to being transgender, nor did they share any examples of current KHSAA policy failing to maintain a fair playing field.
Background: What to know about the Kentucky’s transgender sports ban bill
Fairness Campaign Executive Director Chris Hartman said SB 83 has always “been more about fear than fairness.”
“In Kentucky’s entire school system, there is only one openly transgender girl we know about who is playing on a school sports team,” Hartman said in a statement. “But rather than tackle any of the state’s real issues, legislators decided to use their time and power to bully this student and others like her.”
Kentucky’s Republican-dominated legislature will get a chance to override vetoes when they reconvene next week. SB 83 passed easily with veto-proof margins in both chambers.
Lawmakers will likely have a tighter vote on Senate Bill 1, which was initially aimed at school councils before ballooning to cover other topics. After the House expanded the bill, it narrowly received final passage in the Senate with 21 ‘yes’ votes — one more than the 20 needed to override Beshear’s veto.
Beshear also takes aim at Jefferson County new cities bill
Among the eight bills vetoed Wednesday by Beshear was House Bill 314, which would dramatically ease the process for creating new cities within Jefferson County by no longer requiring Louisville Metro Council approval.
Under the bill, a new city or annexation request would be approved if at least 66% of residents in the area signed a petition to do so, while the maximum number of terms a Louisville mayor could serve would be reduced from three to two.
Background: Here’s where all of Beshear’s 2022 vetoes stand
Echoing the arguments of Democratic elected officials against the bill, Beshear wrote in his veto statement that it “undoes the votes of the citizens of Louisville and Jefferson County to have a consolidated government” in their 2002 ballot initiative.
The governor added that HB 314 “threatens the success of that merger by putting millions of dollars of revenue at risk” and may cause the city to lose millions more in federal pandemic aid.
Beshear wrote that the bill “imposes changes on Louisville’s government, without the consent of the people of Louisville,” adding that legislators outside the city who supported it “should think twice, because it sets a terrible precedent under which the General Assembly could turn around and aim similar disruptive actions at other local governments.”
Republican House members from Louisville who pushed for the bill said this would give South End residents more say over their local services, arguing the city and its police department provide insufficient services.
Here are the other bills Beshear vetoed Wednesday:
- House Bill 248, which states the Kentucky Attorney General is the only statewide constitutional officer who is allowed to expend taxpayer funds on litigation challenging the constitutionality of a bill — a direct response to several lawsuits filed by Beshear to block Republican-led legislation from going into effect. In his veto statement, Beshear wrote that HB 248 violated several sections of the constitution and was “a blatant attempt by the General Assembly to shield unconstitutional laws it passes from judicial review.”
- House Bill 334, which removes the governor’s ability to make all appointments to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission and instead gives the majority of appointments to other statewide constitutional officers — who are all currently Republicans. In his three-page veto statement, Beshear wrote that HB 334 violated the constitution and “is yet another attempt at a power grab” by the legislature.
- House Bill 773, which removes the governor’s authority to appoint any members to the Prosecutors Advisory Council. Beshear’s veto statement added that it would also eliminate any mechanism for the removal of any member of the council.
- House Bill 271, which moves the Agritourism Advisory Council under the control of the Department of Agriculture and removes the role of Tourism Cabinet. Beshear’s veto statement called it another power grab.
- Senate Bill 217, which Beshear said he vetoed due to it giving “sole power over procurement and all personnel appointments in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to one person — the commissioner” —then cited critical audits of the department under its current leadership.
This story may be updated.
Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.
