Cameron & Beshear make pro-education pushes. How do their plans compare?

Both candidates for governor have unveiled significant plans for education reform over the next four years, as each attempts to brand themselves as pro-public education.

Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron unveiled “Cameron’s Catch-Up Plan” on Tuesday with a focus on addressing learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s plan is loftier and more expensive, but faces serious challenges in the GOP-controlled legislature – the body has been reluctant to discuss many of Beshear’s previous proposals on the subject.

Cameron laid out his plan on Tuesday while Beshear outlined his budget priorities on education Wednesday, announcing a press conference on the matter moments after Cameron held his event.

Cameron’s plan

Headlining Cameron’s education plan is a bump in base starting pay for teachers statewide to $41,500 from $36,558. The attorney general said that he worked with legislators to craft a proposal that would garner approval from those holding the purse strings in Frankfort.

Many districts in Kentucky pay more than that for starting teachers – Fayette County was the first to get its starting pay over $50,000 and the statewide average salary last school year was $56,375 – but Cameron stressed that the proposal is to ensure “that every county across our Commonwealth is doing right by our teachers.”

Though Cameron did not commit to across the board pay raises, as Beshear has pushed for, his plan stated that “the pay scale across the board will be able to increase, allowing every teacher to increase their salary.”

He also proposed a 16-week, state-funded tutoring program focused on math and reading for kids who need extra help. The program would take place after school and over the summer, would be administered by teachers and would cost the state around $100 million, Cameron said. Other instructional support ideas include ensuring that a “reading interventionist expert” is working in each school district and that the state shift its reading education focus toward phonics-based instruction.

Cameron also said he’d work to give more support to districts to ensure that they can afford a school resource officer to be present in every school and to reduce bureaucracy and red tape in favor of getting resources to children and teachers.

The plan marked a concerted effort to shift perceptions of Republicans for governor as “anti-education.” Cameron made a direct plea for the support of Kentucky’s teachers, who led protests against former GOP governor Matt Bevin over proposed changes to the state’s public pension system, to reconsider any biases they may have against Republican candidates.

Cameron said at the outset of his press conference that he wanted to “usher in a new relationship between our teachers, our school administrators, public education, and the Republican Party.”

“I know that you might have apprehensions about me – or, for that matter, any Republican nominee for governor – so let me just simply say I’m sorry. I’m sorry for any perceived comments from anyone within this party that have made you feel less than valued or led you to have serious misgivings about the Republican Party on the topic of education,” Cameron said.”I want you to know that I appreciate you, I respect you and that I see what you do daily to fight for our kids.”

Cameron also highlighted what he framed as shortcomings of the Beshear administration on education, particularly as it relates to learning loss during the pandemic.

“Kids, parents and teachers are suffering. The failures of the last four years will cause ripple effects throughout families and society for generations. Andy Beshear followed Anthony Fauci down the rabbit hole of school closures that damaged our kids’ futures,” Cameron said.

While state-by-state comparisons are imperfect, according to data from the National Center for Education, most of Kentucky students’ scores on federal assessments are near average – with the exception of eighth grade math, which is tied for ninth-lowest in the country.

Cameron did not mention school choice in his press release, which is a hot issue among Republicans but one that pro-Beshear forces have hit Cameron on. Cameron’s office defended a law in court that would have set up a tax credit scholarship fund through the state allowing kids go to schools other than their local public schools. That law was found unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court and many GOP legislators are seeking to prioritize the passage of a constitutional amendment to allow such a law

The Kentucky Democratic Party, in a response to Cameron’s proposals, said it was telling that the attorney general did not include any mention of a voucher program in his new plan.

“Yesterday, Daniel Cameron rolled out an education plan that was missing the centerpiece of his policy agenda for education in Kentucky. He’s doing this because he knows that taking taxpayer dollars out of public schools and giving them to unaccountable private schools is wildly unpopular,” Kentucky Democratic Party spokesperson Anna Breedlove said in a statement.

Beshear’s education priorities

Beshear already released an “Education First Plan” in the early days of the legislature last year but unrolled his budget priorities for the upcoming legislative session on Wednesday.

Those priorities are centered on an across-the-board 11% school employee – including teachers – pay raise. Beshear said the total cost of that raise would be $1.1 billion.

Legislators, in response to Beshear’s proposals on education, have largely ignored his requests.

Beshear said the General Assembly had gone “not nearly far enough” in its commitment to education funding in recent sessions, and proposed universal pre-K for all 4-year-olds in Kentucky – that’s an item that Beshear has argued for repeatedly, and the legislature has not taken it up.

State Budget Director and Secretary of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet John Hicks said the plan, while expensive, was one that Kentucky could afford.

“The Governor’s budget is affordable because the current budget, fiscal year 2024, has $1.4 billion more in revenues than in recurring spending which creates headroom for new spending, and based on current estimates we will end this year with another billion-dollar surplus,” Hicks said. “We can make these investments, and there is still plenty of space for other needs and other demands in this upcoming budget.”

Beshear’s priorities also included commitments to fully fund teachers’ pensions and medical benefits without making increases to health insurance premiums, a focus on professional development, a new student loan forgiveness program for teachers and more.

When asked about how he’d manage to get these proposals through, Beshear argued that he’s got a track record of using his pulpit to push on the legislature to pass priorities of his.

“We’ve gotten a lot of things passed in these last several years. I was told that we could never get medical marijuana or sports betting passed through the General Assembly, and we got that done,” Beshear said.

He also said that he might have better luck once a re-election bid has passed.

“Thankfully this next session of the General Assembly will be after this election, there will be less politics at play, and hopefully we can sit down – because I plan on still being here knowing that I can’t run for a reelection after that – and have the conversations about how much we have to invest because of how far we’ve fallen behind,” Beshear said.

House Education Committee Chair James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, scoffed at Beshear’s plan. He also expressed frustration that neither Beshear nor anyone on his team had reached out to him.

“For years, Andy Beshear has made empty promises to teachers, parents, and students. He inflicted historic learning loss on a generation. And now he suddenly cares about education? He nor any member of his office has reached out to me to discuss any plan. Daniel Cameron has. The education framework released by Daniel Cameron has a much better chance of passing than anything proposed by this Governor and his administration,” Tipton said.