Given the crucial shortage of Kentucky teachers, the lack of incoming graduates to the profession, and the perennial attack on teachers by Kentucky legislators, one must wonder what might be the final nail in the coffin for Kentucky’s public education system.
Yet Kentucky legislators are hardly done wielding their hammers. A recent bill proposed by Sen. Gex Williams is taking aim at teachers’ personal identifiers and their connection to a debunked mental health diagnosis. It is sure to shrink the pool of public teachers even further.
Senate Bill 351 would refuse teaching certificates to anyone with specific — and scientifically outdated — mental health diagnoses involving gender identification, as defined in a psychology text published in 1980, the DSM-III. Though it was revised in 2008, it still includes dubious categories such as gender identity disorders.
To be clear, the American with Disabilities Act would prevent teachers from being fired for most common mental and physical health concerns, but traditionally identifying as LGBTQ is not protected under this act.
Williams noted a single complaint in a single district as the cause for this state-wide witch hunt. He declined to name the district but did say the child in question was now homeschooled.
Teacher’s union representative Laura Hartke told WKYT that the bill was nothing short of disturbing and hateful. “We are a political football at all times. And this is just another chance to divide instead of unite. Instead of focusing on what our students need. This ain’t it,” she said.
Those teachers who truly care about the profession more than the perks work overtime to ensure every child in their classroom feels welcome and heard, even those children who differ politically. Yet students who do report they dislike their teachers rarely cite the problem as who their teacher dates off the clock.
In fact, the most common reason Kentucky teachers are fired is for sexual misconduct of a male teacher with female students, as reported by Kentucky Youth Advocates using data from state teachers’ standards board.
Research shows that “almost three-quarters of those who had their teaching licenses revoked for sexual misconduct were men, even though male teachers only comprise 22% of Kentucky’s teachers. Despite the fact that male teachers are more highly associated with sexual misconduct than is the use of electronic communications, thus far no one has suggested banning men from teaching,” wrote Lora Bartlett for Education Week.
Yet according to the bill’s sponsor, Senator Gex Williams, 20th District, “We have a lot of confusion with children out there. And it begins with teachers who have confusing pronouns that the kids are grappling with.”
Frankly, it sounds like Kentucky girls are grappling with their male teachers’ unwanted attention much more often.
What students and teachers are actually grappling with
Kentucky kids of all genders are “grappling with” abuse, hunger, and homelessness much more than a teacher whose personal identity doesn’t match their haircut. Childhood maltreatment is at nearly double the national rate, while Kentucky families are struggling with a serious increase in homelessness – up 11% from last year as reported by the Kentucky Housing Corporation.
Kentucky’s children suffer from food insecurity at a higher rate than their counterparts nation-wide: about 21% of our kids aren’t guaranteed their next meal, reports Kentucky Youth Advocates. This is up from 15% in 2023, but is more severe in Eastern Kentucky where child poverty rates are reportedly above 40% in some counties.
So no, Kentucky kids aren’t “grappling with” what to call their teachers, unless their parents are working hard behind the scenes to take away such basic human rights from even the lowliest state employee.
What Kentucky students are actually grappling with is why their representatives keep bemoaning state testing scores while ignoring schools’ lack of adequate funding, parents’ lack of secure housing, and students’ lack of reliable food.
What Kentucky teachers are grappling with is how to still afford a mortgage payment on abysmal wages while legislation yet again vilifies their private lives.
University teaching programs are grappling with finding highly qualified applicants as fewer post-secondary students are willing to endure the political witchhunts against public school teachers.
Pretty soon, Kentucky schools will be grappling with an impossible teacher shortage, driven to the brink even faster by legislation like SB 351.
Legislators like Williams want the “right” kind of people in underpaid, thankless public service positions, but have belittled, marginalized, and underfunded the professionals in these fields to the point that few such unicorns can be found.
If Williams and his fellow Republicans don’t like the teachers they have, then perhaps they should make an honest effort to solve the real issues plaguing Kentucky’s classrooms and driving teachers from the field.
Otherwise, they are always welcome to fill one of the thousands of classroom vacancies themselves.
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