Kentucky's governor, Bevin, hurts the pitfalls of a teacher: "No reason not to walk on students"

Kentucky governor Matt Bevin released a Facebook video on Monday night criticizing state educators who had organized "breakaways" to protest two education bills in the legislature. State.

"There is no reason to walk on students, to leave them in embarrassment, to hurt them as well as their parents and the many Kentucky businesses that are affected by this," said Bevin in a video of almost four minutes, titled "Sick" Sickouts? "" "… Do not let all the noise of people hungry for power and money, at the [Kentucky Education Association] and others distract you from the fact that putting children first is our biggest responsibility. "

Teachers' absences forced state schools to close their doors as teachers and school system employees gathered in Frankfurt, the state capital, to make themselves heard during the weekend. legislative hearings. For example, schools in Jefferson, Meade, Oldham and Bullitt counties were all closed last Thursday. A week earlier, at least six school districts had been closed, including the two largest in the state.

The most controversial bill would change the mode of appointment of members of the board of directors of the Kentucky Teachers' Pension System, which controls the pensions of about 126,500 people. At present, the Kentucky Education Association – which has approximately 43,000 members – oversees the nominations of seven of the eleven members of the pension board. The bill would change that, leaving groups like the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association, the Kentucky School Boards Association and the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents to appoint members.

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"One organization in particular controls the appointment process of seven of these positions, effectively protecting other educators from decisions that affect their financial future," said Republican Ken Upchurch, sponsor of the bill.

Bevin, who is due to be re-elected this year, has already criticized teachers who opposed his efforts to reform the state's poor pension systems, which are among the most poorly funded in the country. State officials have at least $ 39 billion less money to pay benefits over the next 30 years. The teacher retirement system alone is at least $ 14.3 billion short of the amount required to pay benefits.

In his video Monday, Bevin defended the actions of his administration in retirement educators.

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"I am the only administration, ours, to be the first to finance the pension system in its entirety," he said. "We have injected more money into the pension over the past three years, in the last two budgets, than the previous governor [Democrat Steve Beshear] did in eight years. We are the only ones to draw attention to the obligation we owe to those who are responsible, to our students. "

Bevin also accused the Jefferson County Teachers 'Union, the most populous of the state, of "reloading sick days into teachers' accounts so they can call themselves sick even if they are not sick. "

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"This is the kind of thing that Kentucky taxpayers, who are watching this, should be offended by that," he said. "You should really be, and if you are parents whose children go to school, like me, you should be offended by that.We have the responsibility to take care of our young people, we it's as simple as that. "

The protests in Kentucky are the latest example of teachers leaving the classroom to demonstrate in front of state capitals, a move that began last year in West Virginia before spreading to Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Associated Press contributed to this report.