Latest news with #JenniferDecker
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Controversial Kentucky DEI bill moves to Gov. Beshear's desk after debate
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — After a debate during Wednesday's legislative session, a bill dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and offices in Kentucky higher education will move to the governor's desk after a 32-6 vote. House Bill 4 would reportedly ban Kentucky colleges from considering race, national origin, sex, or religion in hiring, admissions, and scholarships. Late change to bill ending Kentucky conversion therapy ban will now disqualify Medicaid-covered transgender care Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, who proposed the bill, argued the legislature provides equal protection by removing discriminatory policy from colleges. 'Our low-income minorities are not on our campuses to the extent they were before all this started. What's to blame? I don't know. This hasn't helped. And if I were an advocate for the minority community, which I am, this is damaging to the minority community,' Rep. Decker told FOX 56. Kentucky Senate Democrats said that if HB 4 became law, the Commonwealth would become less attractive to employers across the nation, ultimately hindering Kentucky's economic growth. Lexington sees major drop in opioid overdose deaths: Here's what community members say is working Controversial Kentucky DEI bill moves to Gov. Beshear's desk after debate Members of medical community speak out against Kentucky's abortion bans 'This bill sends a message of 'You are not welcome,'' Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said. 'Let's make no mistake: This bill is about race, about gender, about exclusion, and about restricting opportunities for marginalized communities. We have seen this before, and we cannot sit idly by.' After passing on Wednesday, HB 4 will now move to Gov. Beshear's desk to be signed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill banning DEI at Kentucky universities moves toward final passage
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A measure banning an diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public colleges and universities passed the Senate on Wednesday, taking a significant step toward final passage. House Bill 4, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, passed the Senate chamber on a 32-6 vote. It now heads back to the House for concurrence. If the House concurs with a title amendment change in the Senate, the bill will head to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's desk. Beshear can then either sign the bill into law, veto it or let it become law without his signature. He has previously defended DEI measures, but a veto would likely be only for show with a Republican-controlled legislature that could override it. HB 4 defines DEI initiatives as policies, practices or procedures "designed or implemented to promote or provide differential treatment or benefits to individuals on the basis of religion, race, sex, color, or national origin." The bill has some exceptions, including for Americans with Disabilities Act and Title IX requirements. In addition to banning colleges and universities from spending money on DEI initiatives, the measure also requires schools to eliminate all DEI offices and positions and prohibits them from requiring students or staff to attend DEI training sessions. Schools would be required to comply with all of the bill's components by the end of June, ahead of the next fall semester. Crunch time: Where key bills stand as 2025 legislative session nears end Prevent personal views on social or political issues from being taken into consideration in hiring, contract renewal, tenure, promotion, admission or graduation. Ban scholarship criteria or eligibility restrictions based on an applicant's religion, race, sex, color or national origin. Prevent student housing assignments based on those conditions, outside of separate living quarters for different genders. Prevent investigations of bias and disciplinary hearings over bias, unless certain circumstances approved by university counsel are met. Require annual certifications from schools ensuring no money has been spent on DEI initiatives and require policies on "viewpoint neutrality" on the basis of social or political viewpoints. Require annual surveys to "assess intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity" to ensure students and school employees are exposed to competing ideas and feel comfortable expressing personal views. Reach reporter Hannah Pinski at hpinski@ or follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @hannahpinski. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky legislature: Anti-DEI bill moves toward final passage
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill ending DEI programs at Kentucky universities advances to House
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — DEI: There is no shortage of debate around those letters and the politics of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that, in Rep. Jennifer Decker's (R-Waddy) view, 'Have made our colleges more divided, more expensive, and less tolerant,' as she told lawmakers on the House Postsecondary Education Committee Tuesday. Decker argues her proposal, House Bill 4, is an 'equal protection' bill. Bill ending DEI programs at Kentucky universities advances to House Christian Appalachian Project looks back on 60 years of service Kentucky troopers indicted for alleged civil rights violations A similar proposal she sponsored last year died in the Senate. This year's bill would prohibit Kentucky colleges and universities from considering race, national origin, sex, or religion in hiring, admissions decisions, or scholarships. It would also end any funding for DEI-related offices and prohibit any required or incentivized DEI pledges, statements, or trainings at colleges and universities. A committee substitute removed a private right of action for an individual to press charges and added a review process to be headed by the state auditor to regularly review if institutions are following statute or risk being ineligible for state funding. 'To say that we've been trying this for a few years and it's not working, well, we have many, many, many years that we have to go back and try to undo a lot of years of damage where we have excluded individuals,' Rep. Sarah Stalker (D-Louisville) said. 'Our low-income minorities are not on our campuses to the extent they were before all this started. What's to blame? I don't know. This hasn't helped. And if I were an advocate for the minority community, which I am, this is damaging to the minority community,' Decker said. Bill ending DEI programs at Kentucky universities advances to House Christian Appalachian Project looks back on 60 years of service Kentucky troopers indicted for alleged civil rights violations Decker argued there's a lack of return on investment for DEI programs improving enrollment and stated that the 2023 Supreme Court ruling ending race-based affirmative action in college admissions essentially makes DEI programs unconstitutional. Language in the bill specifies that none of the bill's provisions would apply to academic course content. Democrats questioned the correlation of enrollment data and argued that there is a bigger message being sent with this kind of bill. 'The historical indicators of what has occurred, particularly with people who look like me and other protected classes in our society. It's a really serious problem, and I think we're trivializing it. And that we're trying to say that this does not matter,' Rep. George Brown (D-Lexington) said. The bill passed committee on party lines and is set for a full House vote as soon as Wednesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
An existential threat to Kentucky's community newspapers
House Bill 368, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, and awaiting action in the Senate, would allow local governments and others to remove legal notices from newspapers and place them on government websites. These are things like notices of meetings, proposed ordinances, master commissioner sales, estate filings, utility rate increases. (Getty Images) Community journalists across Kentucky are raising alarms about House Bill 368, which would end a requirement to publish legal notices in local newspapers. The measure cleared the Kentucky House 62-30 on Feb. 26. Jane Ashley Pace, immediate past president of the Kentucky Press Association and publisher of The Oldham Era and the Henry County Local, recently wrote that HB 368 would decrease government transparency and could cost some smaller, rural counties their local newspaper. The following is an edited version of a column published in the Woodford Sun written by Sun managing editor Scott White. Just when you think things are turning around. . . . The Kentucky General Assembly is considering House Bill 368, which, if passed into law, would pose a very real threat to the Woodford Sun's ability to stay open. Let me explain. As many of you know from prior columns, we here at the Sun have been laser-focused on saving this county's 156-year-old voice from extinction. This is not crying wolf — community newspapers in Kentucky and around the country have been failing at a steady rate. The Sun has not turned a profit since 2015. We are a bare bones staff. Even so, our publisher Ben Chandler is committed to keeping this newspaper locally owned, locally focused and open. We are the sole source of Woodford County hard news, features, community doings, local sports and you name it. Everything we print is relevant to anyone living or doing business in or enjoying Woodford County. Even being small, I am pretty proud of the job we do, and based on what many of you call, text or email me or stop and tell me, most folks agree. I can't tell you how many folks have stopped me to say, 'You guys can do it, we need the Sun. Don't sell or close. The Sun is indispensable.' Many of you have renewed for two years. Many seniors ignore the discount price and pay the full amount. Some of you have increased the number of times you advertise — or increased the number of times you run an ad. Thank you. And, according to data from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, there are a lot of you out there supporting the Sun. The institute reports out of 120 community newspapers in Kentucky, we are 30th in community penetration at 29% — which represents the percentage of residents who read our paper. This is calculated by totaling the average in-county mail and single-copy sales numbers on our annual postal statement and dividing that total by the number of housing units, a datum that is updated annually by the Bureau of the Census. This means a third of this county's population regularly reads the Sun. And though our advertising revenues are not what they were even five years ago, they are improving. You accepted without complaint an increase in the cost from 75 cents to a dollar. Subscriptions, both new and renewals, are up. Now, about HB 368. HB 368, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, and awaiting action in the Senate, would allow local governments and others to remove legal notices from newspapers and place them on government websites. These are things like notices of meetings, proposed ordinances, master commissioner sales, estate filings, utility rate increases; just turn to our classified page and you will see some. We don't make a ton of money off of these, but this does account for a portion of our revenue. The possible loss of this, now, is a real threat, and we are nearly there. Sadly, many of our colleagues around the state are in even worse shape, where the loss of this revenue would put them out of business. Though I get and hear the criticisms of the media, the reality is do you really want to live in a country without a free and independent press? Let me be more specific. Should residents of Letcher County have to live without the award-winning Mountain Eagle? Or, Georgetown without the News-Graphic? Or, Frankfort without the State Journal? Or, Versailles and Midway without the Woodford Sun? That said, it's important to also remember there are public policy reasons with roots in the free press provisions of the federal and Kentucky constitutions for governments to be required to publish certain matters in the newspaper and not just on government websites. Placing legal notices in newspapers increases transparency, holds public officials accountable, and decreases the risk of mischief by those officials and bureaucrats. When a legal ad is placed in a newspaper, it is placed in the local newspaper, it is dated, and cannot be changed after the fact. In addition, it is placed on a website managed by the Kentucky Press Association where all legal notices in Kentucky can be found easily at When the Sun publishes a legal notice, it is in the paper, on our website and on the digital paper. HB 368 seeks to have entities including county and city governments place public notices on their own websites, yet many have only one employee, if any, and often can't keep their current websites updated. As good as the new sites run by the City of Versailles and Woodford County are, they are managed by just one or maybe two employees who have myriad other responsibilities. Is it reasonable to expect a local government, even as good and responsible as we have, to make sure required legal notices are posted and maintained in a timely fashion? Given the risk of mischief, is it worth it? I suspect some of you know who Al Cross is; he made his name as both a state government reporter for the Courier-Journal where he became a columnist and then as the executive director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky, from where he just recently retired. Al is also considered one of the most informed, keen and prescient observers of Kentucky politics and is a regular on KET's election night coverage. Al is also a good friend of mine and Ben's, a very good friend and subscriber of the Sun, and someone whom I regularly solicit for his views and thoughts on how we operate. Here is what Al recently emailed me about HB 368, 'All in all, (last week's edition of the Sun) was a newspaper that could be an excellent vest-pocket argument against HB 368, which would lead to the death of some Kentucky newspapers by allowing local governments to post public notices on their websites instead of local newspapers — which once got maybe 7 (percent) to 8 percent of their revenue from public notices but are now likely in the neighborhood of 20 percent.' Well, we aren't 20%, but it's north of 7%.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kentucky senator launches 1-2 punch to DEI policy in government, K-12
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — On the coattails of a bill filed on Wednesday by Rep. Jennifer Decker, a pair of bills filed on Friday by the Kentucky Senate aim to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy and offices in the state's government, as well as K-12 education. Sen. Lindsey Tichenor filed the bills—SB 164 and SB 165—on Thursday. Gov. Beshear declares state of emergency ahead of expected flooding: 'Dangerous conditions' SB 164 would create new sections of current state law that would prohibit any public agency from giving 'preferential treatment to people or entities based on religion, race, sex, color, or national origin when they contract or seek employment with the state or local government.' This bill is also heavily focused on state employee training, forbidding government staff in trainer roles from incentivizing diversity or inclusion initiatives on a financial or policy level, as well as terminating funding for DEI offices in local and state governments. Any state or local government body that would violate SB 164, if it gets signed into law, would reportedly be liable for civil action. SB 164 specifies that Kentucky's Office of Diversity, Equality, and Training would be simplified to 'Office of Employee Training' if the bill is signed into law. The other bill, SB 165, applies similar changes to the Kentucky Department of Education's infrastructure—amending current state laws to remove DEI positions and policies from the state's school districts. 12 years of playing pays off for Danville man with $25K a year for life lottery win National humane society leader speaks alongside state government officials at annual Frankfort summit Trump seems to question well-known part of Sen. Mitch McConnell's life — his childhood polio battle If passed, SB 165 would partially take effect Feb. 1, 2026. Both bills carry an emergency designation, meaning SB 164 and parts of SB 165 would become state law upon signature or veto override. SB 164 and SB 165 can each be viewed in their entirety on the Kentucky General Assembly website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
