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Time To Make It Clear to Bevin That We Will Not Stand for a Commissioner And Board of Education that Attack Our Public Schools and Their Teachers

3/16/2019

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As the Kentucky Board of Education's henchman Wayne Lewis attempts to intimidate teachers by asking for names of those who called in sick and board member Gary Houchens attacks teachers who protested Frankfort for "gross unprofessionalism",  I thought it was time to revisit who exactly the people are that were appointed by Matt Bevin to appoint Wayne Lewis the new commissioner. Given the political leanings of many of these individuals, we cannot risk leaving them in charge of our public education system.  I would ask that people who care about public education call 800 372 7181 and let your local legislators know that you do not want to see these individuals confirmed.   

I already wrote about the 2016 appointees to the Kentucky Board of Education.  Unfortunately, they're already confirmed.   But now we have a chance to make our voices heard about the confirmation of the 2018 appointees, who are up to be confirmed on the last day of the General Assembly.    

Here are the 2018 nominees scheduled to be confirmed and their ties to undermining public education.  

Hal Heiner

If there is a ground zero for charters and education privatization in Kentucky, it's probably Hal Heiner.  Heiner has been attacking JCPS for years, and was fond of spouting the fiction that 30,000 out of 100,000 JCPS kids would not graduate.   Heiner founded Kentuckians Advocating Education Reform in Kentucky with Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis back in August of 2011,  and a few months later he founded Kentucky Coalition for Education Reform with JCPS critic and Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition founder, Jerry Stephenson   Both Stephenson and Heiner have been active in opposing LGBT rights in Louisville.  

Heiner also has a vested interest in scholarship tax credits as a former chairman of Christian Academy of Louisville. Heiner was made chairman after a rule change this year that allowed first term members to become chairman. Heiner is not an educator.   

Ben Cundiff

Ben Cundiff is tied to two Tennessee charter schools, East End Prep, and Explore!.  In 2018, a WDRB investigation into e-mails from the Kentucky Board of Education contained this gem it found in an e-mail from Ben Cundiff.  
​“I just told Hal yesterday that I will sign up for four more years, but if charters are dead I may renege and go out in a blaze of public name-calling on the teachers’ unions,” Cundiff wrote, apparently referencing then-Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Hal Heiner, who now serves on the state education board.

“This is a big deal for me, as I know it is for you at least as much. I feel that the teachers, of all people, just murdered the underserved kids of Louisville and Lexington, in one of the most hypocritical acts I’ve ever seen.”
 That's right, a Kentucky Board of Education member said on the public record that he might "go out in a blaze of public name-calling on the teachers' unions" and said teachers who were against charters "murdered" students.  

Dare I mention that Cundiff also is not an educator.  And that he doesn't live in Louisville or Lexington?   

Gary Houchens

Last week Gary Houchens publicly attacked teachers for protesting in Frankfort in a series of tweets.  He also has called teachers hypocrites for not protesting a bill that gives tax breaks that will reduce Kentucky's revenue.  Unlike most on the board, he is an educator, with experience in both private and public schools.  But he's been tie d to Kentucky Board of Education members Hal Heiner, Milton Seymore, and Commissioner Wayne Lewis for years in pushing charter schools.   He's also listed as a director of EdChoice Kentucky.  EdChoice is a group devoted to the privatization of education.  It is also a member of the State Policy Network, a collection of conservative and libertarian "think" tanks that have worked to push an Astroturfed message in support of education privatization among other issues.   The State Policy Network receives much of its funding from extremely wealthy individuals and groups outside of our state, including the Koch Brothers from Kansas.  

In addition to being a part of EdChoice Kentucky, Houchens has been a "scholar" for the Bluegrass Institute, another member of the State Policy Network, and serves as an education advisor for the Pegasus Institute, a Koch aligned "think" tank.   

Kathy Gornik 

Kathy Gornik is another former member of the Bluegrass Institute.  She also is a Tea Party activist who has no love for government institutions like public education.  Her public stances are downright disturbing though.  For instance, she defended Rand Paul for saying he would not have voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  She also has attacked diversity initiatives and even drunk driving laws on her Facebook page.   And she has attacked the sound science of climate change (See below).   It's frightening to think someone who denies science and considers diversity to be a problem is making policy for education.   
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 Amanda Stamper

Amanda Stamper was Governor Bevin's former spokesperson, famous for not getting back to reporters.  It was Stamper who signed an agreement to abide by JCPS policies for building use when Bevin had a meeting for his infamous plan to defeat violence using prayer walks.  Bevin had tried to close the meeting to the public, despite the JCPS policy that it must be open under its terms of use.   Stamper at least has some experience in public schools, as a president of the PTA in a Fayette County School.   

Laura Timberlake

Not much information is available on Laura Timberlake, but from an interview, it appears that Laura is at least a public school parent with concerns about getting resources to school children.  

Tracey Cusick

Again, not much is known about Tracey Cusick, but she is described in the Courier Journal  as a mother of 10 who, " has a background in homeschooling, private schools and public schools."

Joe Papalia 

Joe Papalia is also a wild card.  It appears he donated about $2600 to Bevin back in 2013 and my understanding is his kids are in private school.  

Governor Bevin has already done much to hurt public schools, their students, and their teachers in his term.  Please send your legislators a message that you do not want to see this board confirmed to make things even worse.   
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My Comments To The Kentucky Board of Education About State Takeover on June 6, 2018

6/9/2018

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Below is the text of the speech I made to the Kentucky Board of Education.  I wrote this that morning after laying awake most of the night pondering if I should give the speech I'd already written or another one.   I will describe my feelings that day in another post.   I've edited it a bit for clarity and included the portion I didn't get a chance to finish.  

My name is Rob Mattheu.  I am a parent of Madeline, a Junior in the visual arts magnet who has been a student at JCPS for the past 11 years. She is the most important person in my and my wife’s life.  That is why I am here, and why I’ve been visible and vocal in JCPS for those 11 years, including attending almost every board meeting of the last two years of Dr. Hargens' failed leadership that led to a state audit.  And that’s why I'm here today to ask you to vote no to state takeover.

Interim Commissioner Lewis, in commenting on the recent news of JCPS giving up its Head Start grant, said “Where is the sense of outrage in our community?”   I know it’s not fair to expect a man who has been in his job for less than two months to have a sense of the community, so I’ll share what I’ve observed from my 11 years in JCPS and a bit of outrage of my own.  

In the last two years of her tenure, I never talked to a parent, teacher, staff member, or student who was happy with the leadership of Dr. Hargens.  In fact, if you start watching the district from the time her contract renewal, you will see a downward spiral that led to lots of outrage. I and others spoke in meetings about concerns with academics, bullying, discipline, achievement gaps, inequalities in punishment for children, and issues that included many of the same findings in your audit.  We were indeed outraged, Mr. Lewis. We care about these audit findings and want to see change. It’s not my fault that you and the several members of the board here from Louisville weren’t present and didn’t ask for our opinion.

But you know what, that’s not my only reason for outrage.   
  • I’m outraged that my Governor, who refuses to pay his fair share of property taxes, and puts his kids in private schools, has manipulated state law to stack this board with education profiteers and friends, and a commissioner sympathetic to his education agenda.  
  • I’m outraged that if state takeover is successful, I lose my voice into my daughter’s education and see it replaced by a man with little K-12 educational experience and a Board of Education with no accountability to the people of Louisville.
  • I’m outraged that we are here talking about serving disadvantaged kids, but we have board members who have publicly attacked diversity initiatives, believe businesses should have the right to discriminate and have questioned if children in the West End of Louisville “have parents”.  With thinking like that, what guarantee do I have that they’re looking out for our kids?   
  • I’m outraged that in their rush to appoint a new chairman and commissioner of education, this board held a special meeting where they violated open meetings law and their own board policies.  
  • I’m outraged that we have a board and governor who continually attacks our teachers, including one member who hates teachers unions and says teachers “murdered” underserved children because they didn’t support charters.  Wonder why he hasn’t addressed our governor’s plan for dealing with actual murder in Louisville’s West End via prayer walks.
  • I’m outraged by a board member who has spent years creating numerous agencies and social media presences devoted to charters and privatization of education with at least two of his fellow board members and Commissioner Lewis. He blocks and ignores dissenting discussion and questions about charters.
  • I’m outraged that our board chair stood beside an openly homophobic pastor from Indiana who asks for charters because he sees dollar signs in his future.  
  • I’m outraged that we have board members who feel there should not be drunk driving laws, reject the sound science of climate change, and who have said on social media, “basically, liberals and progressives hate the human race.”

But most of all I’m outraged by these things.   

  • I’m outraged that I have to be here at all, taking a day off from work, something most of disadvantaged parents can’t afford to do, and driving two hours round trip for perhaps my only opportunity to address this board and know my concerns are heard. Perhaps you could take a lesson from JCPS’ board, allow advance sign up, not place artificial limits on speakers, hold meetings in locations around the state, and most importantly at times that are convenient to the citizens of Kentucky.
  • I’m outraged that in a meeting filled with people talking about “choice”, the choice of Jefferson County voters in their elected school board is not discussed.   
  • I’m outraged that my choice for my daughter could be undermined by a state takeover, and that the fate of my daughter’s future and 100,000 other students in JCPS lies in the hands of you, a group of people with minimal to no stake in Jefferson County Public Schools.   
  • But most of all I’m outraged that a single man with minimal primary K-12 experience and a few days on the job feels ready to tell us that JCPS should be taken over. And I'm outraged he has sought minimal input from JCPS parents, spent minimal time in the district, and can provide no coherent plan for what he would do differently to ensure success where others have failed.  

You want to talk about choice?  My family and 100,000 others made our choice, ladies and gentleman.  We should be allowed to have our say in that choice. Board members would expect the same at Christian Academy, KCD, and wherever you might send your kids.  

​Soon you will make your choice for JCPS. We will be watching, and we will hold you accountable for it.



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Matt Bevin Stacks the Deck for Charters

5/30/2016

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Matt Bevin has named five new appointees to the Kentucky Board of Education.  

Per the department website, the Board "develops and adopts the regulations that govern Kentucky's 173 public school districts and the actions of the Kentucky Department of Education. Department officials follow board guidelines as they both lead and serve public elementary, middle and high schools."

So you'd think Matt Bevin would be interested in choosing people who come from a background in public education, have kids in public education, and/or support public education, right?   

I'm just kidding, this is Matt Bevin.   He doesn't care about your kid's educations.   He's interested in taking those public funds and putting them to good use, like enriching his friends and clergy.   

So just who did Bevin stack the deck with?    

Rich Gimmel 

Rich Gimmel is chairman of Atlas Machine and Supply.  It appears that his children attended Catholic schools in Louisville. And like many of my friends with kids in private schools, he likes to comment on what is bad about JCPS on Facebook and elsewhere.  But hey, we do that here too.    

More troubling is Rich supports charters and vouchers.   Rather than work to improve what we have, why not divert that money elsewhere?  

According to a resume posted at TheVilleVoice last year, Gimmel doesn't have any educational background or work experience in public education.  But he is, like Bevin, active in Southeast Christian Church.  Southeast led an effort a few years back to find ways for public educators to bring religion into schools with a group called LACES.   An organizing meeting of the group openly questioned sound science and made it clear that they have issues with JCPS' progressive stance on LGBT issues.  

​Milton Seymore

Milton is another Louisvillian.  Nothing I can find in Milton Seymore's background indicates an academic history with a background in education, or experience teaching in the public schools.   Milton is, however, a director in one of Hal Heiner's Kentucky Public Charter Schools Association, one of the groups Heiner created to bring charters to Kentucky.    He's also called for charters and vouchers publicly.    Gay Adelmann of the advocacy group Dear JCPS indicated on Facebook that Seymore was one of the ministers at a forum with Matt Bevin in favor of charters and vouchers, and that the group's motivations weren't necessarily about a better education, but to counteract LGBT friendly policies put in place at JCPS.   

Gary Houchens

Gary Houchens is also a member of Hal Heiner's Kentucky Public Charter Schools Association, and is a vocal supporter of charters.  Unlike Heiner and Seymore, he actually has an educational background, which, according to his CV, includes four years of teaching and more time as an administrator at a combination of private and public schools.  

Gary Houchens is listed by the Bluegrass Institute as one of their "Policy Scholars".   The Bluegrass Institute is a right wing, anti-government "think tank" that has continually attacked JCPS and its teachers, often with misleading information.   It wants to privatize public education in the state.   

Ben Cundiff

According to the news media, Cundiff is a chemical engineer and an attorney.  He's an officer of the Governor's Scholars Program Foundation, and an officer of the Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky.  He's also on the board of a Nashville charter school.   Cundiff's political donations are to individuals who tend to support privatizing education.  

Alesa Johnson 

I can find no additional information on Alesa beyond what has been reported, that she's an electrical engineer and serves as associate dean for Workforce Solutions at Somerset Community College.

​

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    About Rob Mattheu

    I created the Louisville BEAT to help JCPS parents become more informed and involved in the school system.  You can contact me here. 

    I am a parent of a student at duPont Manual High School. 

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