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Welcome Back to Frankfort 

Legislative Reception 

Wednesday
January 8th, 2020

5 PM —7 PM

Government Strategies

 229 Shelby Street

Frankfort, KY

Governor Beshear Takes Office

Beshear Takes Office

Today Frankfort was filled with ceremonies and festivities surrounding the swearing-in of Andy Beshear as the 63rd Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. To read a copy of Gov. Beshear's inaugural address click here and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman's inauguration day remarks are available here.

Two other items of note were announced today:

- Gov. Beshear followed through on a campaign promise to reorganize the Kentucky Board of Education, which he did via this Executive Order. He also appointed new members to serve on that Board. Several of the board members that were replaced have filed suit to stop this action and a copy of their complaint can be viewed here. 

- Gov. Beshear also announced today that he will sign an Executive Order on Thursday restoring voting rights for 100,000 felons. This was also a promise made during the campaign.

We expect additional appointments and announcements to be made this week and we will share those as appropriate.  

Happy Thanksgiving from GS!!!

KY Election Results

Kentuckians went to the polls today to elect statewide constitutional officers, two special legislative seats, and a Supreme Court Justice. 

The big story on the night is that Governor Bevin appears to have been upset in his reelection bid by Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear by less than 1% or roughly 5000 votes. The Governor has not conceded the race and is going to follow the election recanvass/recount process due to some irregularities. More details in the days to follow.

The apparent win for Democrats in the Governor's Race is juxtaposed against Republicans sweeping all of the other statewide constitutional offices: Attorney General, Ag Commissioner, Treasurer, Auditor, and Secretary of State.  

These results are unofficial but the announced winners are highlighted in yellow below.

Governor

Andy Beshear (D) 49.2%

Matt Bevin (R) 48.9%

John Hicks (Lib) 2%

Attorney General 

Daniel Cameron (R)  58%

Greg Stumbo (D)  42%

Agriculture Commissioner

Ryan Quarles (R)  58%

Robert Haley Conway (D) 39%

Josh Gilpin (Lib)  3%

Auditor

Mike Harmon (R)  56%

Sheri Donahue (D)  41%

Kyle Hugenberg (Lib) 3%

Secretary of State

Michael Adams (R)  52%

Heather French Henry (D)  48%

Treasurer

Allison Ball (R)  61%

Michael Bowman (D) 39%

There were also two special elections for State House seats with the resignations of Rep. Diane St. Onge and Rep. Tim Moore. 

District 18

Samara Heavrin (R) 60%

Becky Miller (D)  40%

District 63

Kim Banta (R)  63%

Josh Blair (D)  37%

Finally, there was also a special election held to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky State Supreme Court, with the retirement of Bill Cunningham, representing Western Kentucky. State Senator Whitney Westerfield squared off against Christopher Shea Nickell.

Supreme Court

Christopher Shea Nickell 57%

Whitney Westerfield  43%

BR Sub on Education

The Budget Review Subcommittee on Education met in Frankfort and heard testimony on Career & Technical Education (CTE) efforts across the Education Cabinet, KDE, CPE & KCTCS. My notes are below along with links to the slides.

Education Cabinet

Secretary Ramsey, Deputy Secretary Nemes, and Commissioner Gordon updated the committee on key initiatives. Their slides are available HERE. 
- 4200 students have received $6.8 million in Work Ready Scholarship
- Dual Credit Scholarship - The data was from 2015-16, so not very helpful on recent trends, but about $15 million has been spent on the program. 
- Work Ready Skills $100 million bond fund - Monies have been spent, now in monitoring phase - $220 million total ($98 million state dollars and $121 million in matching funds locally) - Expected to increase training capacity for more than 20,000 employees
- Apprenticeships - $1.5 million in federal funds to expand apprenticeships, 251 programs serving 3,391 apprentices
- KY TECH (Get from slides)
- KY Career Center (Get from slides)
- KYStats Funding - Decreasing by 45% in December 2019. Funded mostly by grants $5.9 of 6.8 million. 

KDE
Commissioner Lewis and Associate Commissioner David Horseman gave an overview of KDE initiatives and budget priorities related to CTE. Slides are available HERE and my notes are below:
- Gave an overview of New Skills for Youth as it is an attempt to encourage districts to share resources. Regional partnerships are critical particularly in CTE, because resources are scarce and employers recruit larger areas than one school district 
- Employer engagement Strategies were discussed, but no mention of the work on essential skills except that they were soliciting the skills from the Workforce Investment Boards.
- 20 career pathways that contain general ed as well as technical training, most are grades 9-14 and some are 9-16
- CTE Task Force - Concerns raised by KDE
1. State vs Local centers creates issues on funding and governance
2. Lack of Funding for High Demand CTE programs
3. Funding formula for Local Centers - Statutory funding formula not used

Commissioner Lewis spoke about significant funding need in CTE. Gave an example of Ohio CTE, half the number of technical high schools, but double the students and much better quality. Seems to be saying that we need fewer technical schools and better collaboration between state and local districts

Sen. Wilson in remarks seems to be saying that the CTE Task Force work will be to unify system, fund the system, and deal with qualified teachers of CTE courses. I would expect this will be a big issue next session 

CPE & KCTCS
CPE President Thompson & KCTCS President Jay Box spoke on how to improve CTE in postsecondary education. 

Thompson shared the following key points in his opening remarks:
-  CPE is asking the question...is the credential we are offering producing value for student and needed by business
- Trying to build employability skills into fabric of programs
- Need to consider rebranding work ready scholarship to the "free college" program that it is
- Need to build capacity with underserved students
- Need to invest in higher ed, but need to do it strategically and in results 

President Box utilized these slides and made the following key points:

- He opened giving examples of several ways KCTCS has been partnering with the business community, specifically the KY Association of Manufacturers with KY FAME and their Go Pro in Manufacturing Signing Day.

- Have changed their program mix to be more focused on students getting certificates and not necessarily transferring to 4 year institutions. From 55% to 45% in terns of transfer students and 45%-55% for students not transferring and going direct to the workforce. Sees that trend continuing.

- KCTCS advocated for fully funding the performance funding formula and to increase dual credit rate reimbursement for KCTCS.