Latest news with #Amendment2
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Public education group launches listening tour to build campaign for Kentucky schools
Addison Lowry, a Jefferson County high school student, speaks at the podium during a Protect Our Schools press conference. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) LOUISVILLE — An organization that led a statewide campaign against last year's proposed constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to fund nonpublic schools is seeking more insight about education from communities across Kentucky. Protect Our Public Schools, which has transitioned to a wider education advocacy role following the defeat of Amendment 2 in November, was one of the highest fundraising political action committees against the amendment. Now, the coalition has launched a listening tour in 10 Kentucky cities to gather input and build a campaign for pro-education legislation in Frankfort. Ahead of a forum in Louisville on Thursday, Jefferson County Teachers Association President Maddie Shepherd told reporters that Protect Our Schools is 'in a unique position right now to chart a course for our kids' future.' She said the feedback the organization collects in the 10 forums 'will inform a larger, broader shared campaign about what all of Kentucky schools need.' Addison Lowry, a Jefferson County high school student, said that 'community leaders and local voices were the key' to the movement against Amendment 2 last year and argued that the same strategy will be effective in campaigning on behalf of public education in the future. 'This effort won't be led by Frankfort lobbyists, but by the people who live with the consequences of decisions made in Frankfort every day — the folks who drive through the bus, the students who ride that bus, those who teach in classrooms, pack the lunches and raise the kids in our communities,' Lowry said. 'We believe that those closest to the problem should be the ones helping shape the solution, and that's exactly what this campaign is about.' Protect Our Schools held its first listening stop in Owensboro. The next dates and locations are Bowling Green on June 10 and Lexington on July 15. The organization will announce future dates and locations online at During a forum, those who attend are asked about challenges in their communities and about what they would like teaching and learning for students to be in their areas. They also discuss how to make those goals a reality. Lowry said that by the end of the year, Protect Our Schools hopes to 'have built a more localized, robust coalition than ever before ready to organize for the future students deserve.' When lawmakers return to Frankfort in January for the 2026 legislative session, they will deliberate the next biennial state budget and decide which programs to fund with state dollars. Protect Our Schools plans to compile the feedback from its forums into a legislative campaign that focuses on reinvesting in the state's public schools. Education funding has been a contentious topic between public school advocates and Republican lawmakers in recent years. While some groups like the Kentucky Education Association have argued paying teachers more would incentivize more people to go into the profession, Republicans have argued the General Assembly, controlled by the GOP, has provided a historic level of K-12 education funding. Public education funding nationwide has faced uncertainty as the Trump administration reviews federal funding for K-12 schools. In Kentucky, all but two school districts signed an agreement with the administration to adhere to new restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools and avoid the possibility of losing federal funding. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education denied a $10.6 million request to extend COVID relief funding submitted by the Kentucky Department of Education on behalf of school districts for nine projects.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Knoxville City Council candidates announced ahead of August election
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Most of the Knoxville's City Council seats to represent designated districts are up for grabs in August with no incumbent council members on the ballot. The election is also the first local election that will be impacted by the failure of Amendment 2 in the November 2024 election. For the August 26, 2025 election, there are 19 candidates running to represent Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. The candidates for each district are: Karyn Adams Lindsey Jaremko Becky Jones Charles Van Morgan Parents charged with abuse after infant airlifted to East TN Children's Hospital Nathan Honeycutt Melody Watts Nick Ciparro Ivan Harmon Doug Lloyd Drank Ramey Matthew DeBardelaben Jane George Jeff Talman Sam Brown Charles Grazier Denzel Grant Stan Johnson George J. 'Cat Dad' Raudenbush III Lawrench 'Man' Williams Notably, the 5th District City Council seat is not up for reelection, although it was the center of Amendment 1 in November. The amendment, which passed, designated that the next election for the 5th District seat would be for a two-term year between December 18, 2027 and December 15, 2029, bringing the elections for the seat back into alignment with the remainder of the district councilmember elections, which have four-year terms. Amendment 2, which narrowly failed, had sought to move the City Council's seats to six 'regional at-large' councilmembers and three 'citywide at-large' council members, instead how it is currently made up, which six councilmembers representing each of the city's six districts and three 'at-large' councilmembers. Zoo Knoxville welcomes two new rhinos ahead of new exhibit opening The reasoning for the amendment was a state law which passed in 2023. The law requires the same voting population for both primary and general elections, meaning there would be either voting for district council members within the district they would represent or within the entire city. In the upcoming election, voting for the district seats will be done in-district only for both the primary and general elections. Knoxville's municipal elections are non-partisan. The two candidates for each district seat who have the highest number of votes will be the candidates voted on during the general election. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
American Press
07-05-2025
- Business
- American Press
Teacher stipends survive committee, could be headed to House floor for a vote
By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square Louisiana lawmakers are moving forward this week with a more targeted version of the defeated Amendment 2, which voters rejected in March for being overly complex and far-reaching. On Monday, the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee advanced House Bill 678, a pared-down constitutional amendment that focuses solely on consolidating the state's two primary savings accounts and a companion bill that would fund $2,000 stipends for the state's teachers. HB678, which passed without objection, is a substitute for the original HB472 and is a central piece of lawmakers' effort to revive key elements of the failed 130-page rewrite of Article VII. The new version is significantly shorter — just five pages of actual bill language and three pages of digest — and is framed as a 'single-issue' measure. 'This particular amendment—of course when I first drafted it—it was still part of the Article VII rewrite, which was very, very lengthy,' Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, told the committee. 'But we always intended on making it smaller. I was just trying to meet the bill filing deadlines. In Ways and Means, we amended it down to just the fund combination.' The proposed amendment would merge the Budget Stabilization Fund (commonly known as the Rainy Day Fund) with the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund, and repeal the latter. It would also eliminate current caps on mineral revenues flowing into the general fund, thereby potentially increasing recurring revenue for the state. 'If you remember in Amendment 2, we were combining our two savings accounts,' Emerson said. 'This is the statutory companion. This allows us to grow that fund to about $3 billion. It's a single issue. I would say pretty simple, but obviously, it's a little bit legal — talking about Revenue Stabilization and Budget Stabilization — but that is exactly what the language says we're doing.' The amendment proposes changes to several sections of Article VII of the state constitution and would go before voters on Nov. 3, 2026, a date chosen to coincide with a high-turnout election cycle. The measure is part of a broader effort to revive fiscal reforms contained in the failed March amendment, but this time through standalone bills to avoid overwhelming voters. A companion bill, HB473, which also passed committee without objection, would reallocate savings generated by HB678 to pay down the state's unfunded liabilities in the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana. That move is intended to eventually fund $2,000 stipends for teachers —though those payments would not arrive until November 2026 at the earliest.
American Press
23-04-2025
- Business
- American Press
Jim Beam column:Governor has his billionaire
Jeffrey Yass is Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry's billionaire.(Photo courtesy of Louisiana's Republican Gov. Jeff Landry continues to blame philanthropist and billionaire George Soros for the defeat of Amendment 2 on March 29 that killed a rewrite of the finance article of the state constitution. Soros is often a scapegoat for Republican conservatives, even when he isn't involved. Landry now has his own billionaire helping him promote school choice, but he isn't complaining. His spokesperson didn't respond to a request from The Advocate for a comment on his supporter. Jeffrey Steven Yass is the American billionaire businessman who helps fund Club for Growth, an organization that is helping Landry by financing an advertisement promoting school choice. Before getting into that story, here is more news on those billionaires: Real Clear Politics in January said, 'A Jewish Holocaust survivor, Soros fled communism in Hungary and immigrated to the United States, finding success on Wall Street as a hedge fund magnate.' One report said Soros influenced the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has funded some worthwhile causes and does support progressive and liberal issues. Between 1979 and 2017, Soros donated more than $12 billion to reduce poverty and increase transparency and on scholarships and universities around the world. Yass has a net worth of $59 billion, according to Forbes. He is the richest man in Pennsylvania and the 25th wealthiest person in the world. He is a registered Libertarian who gives money to conservative super political action committees. Both Yass and his wife are supporters of school choice and have donated tens of millions of dollars to the cause. And that brings us back to the Club for Growth's advertisement. The club bought airtime on television channels across the state, including those in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport and Lake Charles, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The ad that started running Sunday targets Louisiana legislators who have challenged Landry's school choice plan called LA GATOR. It urges Louisiana voters to contact their state representatives and demand that they 'fully fund' the scholarship program. Landry has proposed putting $93.5 million into the program next school year. However, some top state lawmakers, including Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, want to spend about half that much. While the ad displays phone numbers for the Louisiana House and Senate, a voice-over says, 'Tell them, 'Don't shortchange our kids,'' Club for Growth says it has funded campaigns in 10 other states promoting programs similar to Louisiana's. The Advocate said the club spent millions in Texas to unseat Republican lawmakers who were opposed to school vouchers, helping clear the way for that state's Legislature to pass a major voucher bill. David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, in a statement last year said, 'Make no mistake — if you call yourself a Republican and oppose school freedom, you should expect to lose your next primary.' The ad calls Louisiana's new voucher-like program 'Landry's education freedom plan.' The newspaper said a Club for Growth spokesperson said they spent 'six figures' on the ad and for outreach to residents digitally and over the phone. The spokesperson wouldn't say whether the group coordinated with Landry's office, which didn't respond to a request for comment. That is pretty much the Landry administration's method of operation when it comes to commenting on almost anything. The Advocate said Club for Growth, which promotes free enterprise and limited government, describes itself and its political arms as 'the largest and most successful conservative political giving group.' In 2023, the club endorsed Landry in his bid to become governor, citing his support for 'school choice voucher programs.' It spent nearly $16 million during state elections in Texas and Tennessee last year to defeat Republicans it says opposed school vouchers. McIntosh, the club's president, said, 'The school freedom revolution is just beginning.' Landry hasn't provided any proof that Soros was a major player in the defeat of Amendment 2. It had numerous opponents because it was so complicated and wide-ranging. The governor forgets that what Yass is doing is what Soros often does and it is typical politics and it isn't illegal. If those who have wealth want to use it to promote various causes, that is their prerogative. Unfortunately, this nation's and state laws and court rulings have allowed unlimited and extremely large political contributions possible. Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or Reply Forward Add reaction
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida wildlife commission chair denies trying to build destructive project he tried to build
A manatee greets kayakers paddling near the property Rodney Barreto owns on Lake Worth. (Photo by Reinaldo Diaz of Lake Worth Waterkeeper) There used to be a TV game show called 'To Tell the Truth.' It ran from 1956 to 1968, then was revived in syndication in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Then, because network TV executives seldom have new ideas, ABC brought it back in 2016 for a six-year revival. We'll probably see it again in the next decade. The game worked like this: Three contestants would all claim to be the same person. Two were impostors willing to lie up a storm, while the real one was required to tell the truth. The celebrity panel had to guess which was which. I thought of that old game show the other day while watching the Florida Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources run a confirmation hearing. In the hot seat: the sitting chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Rodney Barreto. Over the past 20 years, Barreto has been appointed to the commission by three different governors — Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, and Ron DeSantis — which suggests governors are as unoriginal as network execs. This was Barreto's fourth confirmation hearing, and by far the roughest, because mobs of people contacted the senators to urge them to reject him. After Barreto swore to tell the truth, senators asked him about the objections people had raised. Some were angry that he voted to allow a toll road to be built through a Central Florida preserve. Some were upset about the wildlife commission's push for another bear hunt. Others were mad about his advocacy of the purposely misleading Amendment 2. But there was one exchange that I found particularly fascinating. Barreto makes his living as a developer and lobbyist. Sen. Gayle Harrell asked him if he was trying to build condominiums on submerged land on Singer Island in Palm Beach County. Barreto acknowledged that he owns property there but swore he wasn't trying to build anything. 'I don't know who's telling you that I'm building condos there,' he testified. 'There's not one application in front of any governing body.' When Harrell asked him if he'd ever tried to build on his submerged land, he told her, 'Never.' Then he stood there defiantly, as if about to break into the Eurythmics song 'Would I Lie To You?' The committee moved on. I regret to report that nobody brought up the fact that, in 2021, the Palm Beach Post ran a story about Barreto headlined, 'Top Florida wildlife official wants to fill, build on lagoon where turtles, manatees roam.' 'Florida's top appointed protector of wildlife wants to make millions by dredging up and filling in acres of the wildlife-filled Lake Worth Lagoon,' the story begins. 'Rodney Barreto … is pressing legal action to let his company fill, dredge and build hundreds of condos and houses on mostly submerged land off Singer Island.' Maybe he didn't intend to say something so blatantly untrue while he was under oath. Maybe he's just so busy developing land that he forgot about this one controversial project. Others offered a different theory. 'He's just used to getting his way,' said Lesley Blackner, a Stuart attorney and longtime foe of Florida sprawl who testified against Barreto. 'And not being questioned.' Barreto isn't some clueless outsider who's swooped in to destroy Florida's environment. He's from here. 'When I grew up in Miami,' he told the Senate committee, 'I hunted in the Everglades and went fishing in Biscayne Bay. … It was the best time of my life.' Now he's a millionaire who owns property in four states, chaired the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee three times, and routinely hobnobs with well-known politicians, raising beaucoup bucks for them and their causes. 'I'm in the business of making money,' he told the senators. This is not how the wildlife commission started in 1998. Back then, the commissioners included a wildlife biologist, a dentist, a cattle rancher, an insurance executive, a charter boat captain, a retired sheriff, and a defense attorney. The difference, I think, is that the governor who appointed that first board, Lawton Chiles, limited his campaign contributions to $100 maximum. Now the appointees are all big-money boys reaping the benefits of being major contributors to the governor. 'It's all quid pro quo now,' Blackner said. The problem with filling the board with campaign contributors in the real estate and development business, though, is that they're likely to have projects that conflict with the mission of the commission. Take the project Sen. Harrell asked Barreto about. He bought his property in 2016 for $425,000. Two years later, under the name of a company run by Barreto and his wife called Government Lot 1 LLC, he filed an application to build 330 condos, 15 single family homes, 30 boat slips, and a 50-slip marina with a restaurant and community center. To build this would require dumping fill in 12 acres of submerged land and dredging 4 acres of the submerged property. This is a style of destructive development we seldom see in Florida anymore. The place where it would be built, by the way, is adjacent to John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, which Reinaldo Diaz, of Lake Worth Waterkeeper, calls 'one of the best state parks in the state.' As for the property Barreto wanted to develop, it has 'the highest density of juvenile sea turtles in at least the east coast of Florida,' Diaz told me. 'Nearby is the only significant horseshoe crab nesting site I've found in the Lake Worth Lagoon' That spot is so full of wildlife, he said, because Barreto's property consists of 'nothing but seagrass and a strip of mangroves.' Until about 50 years ago, Florida developers believed the best way to build a new waterfront subdivision was to do what Barreto was proposing: Create new land out of water. They would dump fill on the submerged property, turning water into dry land, meanwhile burying mangroves and seagrass aucods galore. In St. Petersburg, for instance, so many developers had built dredge-and-fill subdivisions on Boca Ciega Bay by 1957 that Gov. LeRoy Collins quipped, 'Pretty soon, we're going to have to drill to find water here.' When Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, the new Environmental Protection Agency used it to stop a harmful dredge-and-fill project in Florida. Harbor Isles was to be built on the edge of Tampa Bay by using 1.3 million cubic yards of fill dirt to create 281 acres of dry land. It would destroy what biologists called 'a rich estuarine area.' The EPA won that case. Then it won seven more in the Florida Keys, laying the groundwork for ending such destructive development, not just in Florida but nationwide. Because Barreto's development project was a throwback to the bad old days, it did not get a warm reception from the state. One of the agencies to which he applied for a permit, the South Florida Water Management District, sent back a 17-page letter that basically said, 'Dude, you have GOT to be kidding.' Noting the serious impact on 'an unknown amount of open water, submerged bottom, mangrove and seagrass habitats,' the staff wrote that they had 'considerable concerns' and would likely say no. Barreto withdrew the application — but he was far from done with the project. For the next step, he basically tried to resurrect the dead. Despite the Clean Water Act, some would-be developers had already secured permits for using the old-fashioned building method. Government officials had to negotiate a way to stop them. The settlements they worked out made sure that kind of rampant destruction faded. In 2020, Barreto filed a legal motion to reopen one of those old cases. He asked the court to revive this long-settled matter so his Singer Island project could be declared exempt from modern environmental regulations and he could proceed to build. He joined with two other owners of submerged property to legally object to the Riviera Beach commissioners rezoning their land for preservation. That would prevent their development plans, they argued. These efforts backfired when the Palm Beach Post reported that the lead defender of Florida's wildlife was also the guy trying to destroy a bunch of it. A public uproar ensued. People demanded he either drop his development plans or resign. 'It's not just any part of the lagoon, it is absolutely the best part, in terms of its environment,' Lisa Interlandi of the Everglades Law Center said during an FWC board meeting at the time. To quiet everyone down, Barreto dismissed his legal challenges and told the Miami Herald he would immediately sell the property. However, it appears that his promise to sell the land was another — oh, what's that word that's the opposite of 'true?' It's right on the tip of my tongue. Rather than sell the land, Barreto's corporation hung onto it. He still owns it. He testified to the Senate committee that his only plan was to use it as 'mitigation' to make up for someone else's mangrove-destroying development plans. But a more recent Barreto lawsuit tells a different story. Last year, Barreto's corporation sued Riviera Beach over the property. Barreto contended that by rezoning the land so it could not be developed, the commissioners had in effect taken it from him and he demanded to be paid. That lawsuit is still pending. I contacted Interlandi about all this. She told me: 'The last thing Florida's submerged lands need is people trying to get rich off them. I think this is a great opportunity to pivot and focus on land conservation, not land development.' I tried to contact Barreto to ask him about that. I should warn you that this is where the story gets weird. I have interviewed Barreto several times in the past. For some reason, he didn't return my calls this week. Probably too busy raising money for DeSantis' new foundation, 'Hope Florida Doesn't Find Out.' Instead, to my surprise, I heard from someone who claimed to be Barreto's partner in owning the submerged land. And it wasn't his wife. His name is Glenn Larson. He's president of a Miami company called Dock & Marine Construction that's been around since 1959. Larson told me he'd known Barreto ever since the future mover-and-shaker was a police officer. He said he also built the Barretos' backyard docks. This is the one and only time they've been partners in anything, Larson told me. He just happened to bump into Barreto while he was considering buying the submerged land and Barreto agreed to join forces with him, Larson said. Barreto didn't mention him to the Senate committee and Larson's name doesn't appear anywhere in the property records. I asked him if he had any paperwork to show he's a partner. 'I'm the half-owner, but when they recorded the deed, they left my name off of it,' he told me. In other words, no. The attorney who filed the deed was going to correct that oversight, he said. But that's when Larson — not Barreto! — filed the application to build all those houses and condos on the property, he said. 'I kind of messed him up,' Larson told me. When the water district sent back that letter with all the conditions, he told me, 'Rodney called me and said, 'What the hell are you doing, man?' So, I withdrew it.' Larson insisted that Barreto had no knowledge of the development plans, and that's why his answers to Sen. Harrell were not perjury. Hang on a second, I said. The signature on the permit application looks like Barreto's, not yours. You're just listed as a contractor. He acknowledged that Barreto did sign the permit application. 'I probably went and left the paperwork at his house to get his signature,' Larson said. 'But he didn't know what I was doing.' I find it hard to believe Barreto, a hard-headed businessman if ever there was one, would sign any document without reading it. Anyway, despite all the people who urged them to kick Barreto to the curb, the Senate committee voted 8-1 to confirm him for another term as a wildlife commissioner. Even Sen. Harrell voted for him. Barreto has yet to appear before his second and final Senate hearing, this time with the Ethics and Elections Committee. The hearing hasn't been scheduled yet, so he's got some time to consider what answers he'll give. I promise we can handle the truth. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
