Jan. 13, 2010 — Education and gambling took center stage Monday in the General Assembly on the day before the House will take up a bill on domestic violence named for the woman allegedly shot down by her ex-fiancé.

House Bill 176, sponsored by Education Committee Carl Rollins, D-Midway, will allow state takeover of “persistently low-performing schools,” and enable the state to compete for federal grants under the Race to the Top measure pushed by President Barack Obama.

The bill applies to middle and high schools which are among the lowest 5 percent of low performing schools. Such schools could be closed and students moved to other schools in the district, have the principal and up to half the teaching staff replaced or even place the school under management of an external management organization if approved by the Kentucky Board of Education.

The bill is necessary for Kentucky to compete for the national grants, so lawmakers are in a rush to pass it this week so the application can reach Washington by next Tuesday’s deadline. Two Republican lawmakers, Stan Lee of Lexington and Jim DeCesare of Bowling Green, asked why the bill does not include charter schools – schools which receive state funding but are exempted from state regulations so long as they perform – something supported by Obama. Charter schools are often opposed by public education advocates but supported by conservative groups.

Rollins answered that the bill is strong enough in all other areas to over come the absence of charter schools, but Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said the Senate will consider adding charter schools. He said the Senate will try to vote on the bill as early as Wednesday so a conference committee of the two chambers so the bill can be signed into law by Friday.

Williams also introduced a constitutional amendment Wednesday to require a constitutional referendum on any expansion of gambling or type of gambling. His colleague, Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, introduced another gambling amendment, one which would allow a statewide constitutional amendment on slots in the counties where horse tracks operate but which would also require a local referendum in each county if the statewide measure passed.

Minority Floor Leader Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, has previously said neither amendment is likely to draw Democratic support and both are nothing more than efforts to provide Republicans political cover for their opposition to passing slots at the tracks legislation favored by Gov. Steve Beshear, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and the horse industry. Such a measure narrowly passed the House last June in a special session but then died in the Senate budget committee without a vote on the floor.

Stumbo contends the measure does not require a constitutional amendment – he issued such a ruling while serving as attorney general and current Attorney General Jack Conway has issued a similar advisory ruling. Two previous opinions by attorneys general advised an amendment is necessary.

Meanwhile, Stumbo and Diana Ross, the mother of slain 29-year-old Amanda Ross who was shot multiple times outside her Lexington home and shortly thereafter was pronounced dead, appeared Monday morning on ABC television’s Good Morning America to talk about “Amanda’s Bill.”

The bill, sponsored by Stumbo, would require some suspected of domestic abuse to wear electronic monitors which could alert authorities if the alleged abuser came within a proscribed distance of the alleged victim. Stumbo said the bill will come to the House floor for a vote Tuesday.

Former House member and one-time gubernatorial candidate Steve Nunn, Ross’ one-time fiancé, has been charged with Ross’ shooting and awaits trial in Fayette County. He has pleaded innocent.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.