Lewis is asking schools for lists of names of teachers who called in sick and any documentation from their physicians indicating they are sick.
It's unclear what right Lewis has to do this, or what he could do with the information once he got it. Since school was cancelled, technically, no teacher was absent that day. Additionally, I can't imagine that Lewis has any right to request doctor's notes from people he doesn't directly manage.
Lewis, Hal Heiner, Matt Bevin, Gary Houchens, and other members of our state Board of Education have been gunning for teachers and their unions for close to a decade. Lewis, Houchens, and Heiner have been tied at the hip for years working to privatize public education and support the larger agenda to destroy government institutions pushed by people like the Koch brothers from Kansas. The goal is to divert public funds to private education, preferably religious schools, by finding every means possible to criticize public education while pulling the rug out from under our schools at the same time.
Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis was a teacher for less than 5 years at a total of 3 different schools 10 years ago. That he left the profession so soon after job hopping so much should have been a red flag that he wasn’t cut out to be one of the people he pretends to lead today.
It’s time the people of this state call on Wayne Lewis and the entire Bevin appointed state board of education to resign. They’re an embarrassment to the state and the education profession.
The men and women who work for education in Frankfort should be there to HELP teachers, not tear their profession down in a witch hunt.