History of Moral Instruction Bill Last Year (2025)
- SB 19 introduced last year. Dealt with a moment of silence. Passed the Senate and moved to the House. Through shenanigans, it ended up in the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Why? Because the chair wanted the bill and is tied to the bunch wanting RTRI, aka LifeWise. When the bill reached his committee, he introduced a Committee Substitute that added the moral instruction wording. His committee voted it through and it went to the House floor via the Rules Committee. The House approved the bill.
- All this happened quickly by design and was near the end of last year’s session. Not much time for groups to even know what was being proposed. The process they use can ensure something like this happens in less than 48 hours.
- Keep in mind that Amendment 2 failed miserably across the state.
Current Status of HB 829 (Moral Instruction)
- HB 829 introduced by Rep. Baker and Rep. Petrie- same guy who pushed it through last year in his committee and got SB 19 across the finish line
- This bill would make KY a “shall” state, making school boards have to play ball with groups like LifeWise. Takes local decision-making away and forces school boards to give up 30+ hours of instructional time to an outside, very controversial organization. To add insult to injury, the AG can sue the school board. This is overreach- basically bullying school boards into having to let this group have access to public school students during the school day.
- All bills introduced in the House must go to a committee. HB 829 has been assigned to the logical committee, House Education. The chair of that committee can ensure that it does not come to the committee for discussion. Rep. Scott Lewis is a school superintendent and most likely understands the implications of this bill as well as SB 19 from last year. It’s probably not in a friendly committee as of now
Possibilities to Watch For
- Legislators have a few tools at their hands to move something like this around and get it to the floor. If it goes to the floor, it will likely pass. So getting it killed in committee is optimal- getting it killed by leadership is optimal.
- Ways RTRI can move on the House Side:
- Bill doesn’t move in the Ed Committee. It is recalled and reassigned to the A&R Committee chaired by Petrie. Petrie gets his committee to pass the bill favorably and it goes to the floor for a vote.
- Key players- David Osborne. He can kill the bill through various ways. He may act like he can’t, but he most certainly can through not re-assigning the bill from the Ed Committee, or not sending whatever is passed by Petrie’s committee out of the Rules Committee that recommends what goes to the floor. He controls the levers. Other key players- floor majority leader Rep. Steve Rudy and majority whip Jason Nemes. All work with Osborne on moving bills. These are the power players.
- Other key players: Petrie, bill sponsor and A&R chair. While Tichenor got the limelight, Petrie was the one moving the ball and scored the win last year. All members of the House and A&R committees- they can jam this up in committee and raise objections, vote it down. Last player- Rep Baker, sponsor. He’s a home school guy trying to push his religion and anti-public school beliefs on the whole state.
- Last bit of info about how this could shake out- they take a shell bill that is sitting somewhere and move the language to that bill and abandon HB 829. There are several shell bills sitting ready to go.
- KEY MESSAGING POINT: HB 829 can disappear. It’s the change in KRS 158.200 that we don’t want to happen. We do not want mandated RTRI. We do not want threats of lawsuits against our school boards. Legislators like to hide behind the bill number; that is, they will say I’m not in favor of HB 829. That is a cover for when it goes to another bill or pops up in an amendment that they will vote for. So….messaging is around the content, not just the bill number opposition
- Ways RTRI can move from the Senate Side
- There is no bill on the Senate side directly re: moral instruction; however, there are shell bills that Tichenor and others may have moved through to get ready to have stripped and House Substitutes put in.
- Basically, a shell bill gets proposed, voted on and approved. It goes over to the House side for approval. That bill gets assigned to committee and the process above kicks in. Petrie gets the bill, puts in what he wants, sends it to the Rules Committee, who then can move it to the floor for a vote.
- This means it is key to watching for certain bills being assigned to committees and house substitutions being made to them. It isn’t the easiest thing to do because it happens so fast in Frankfort that notification is received after the committee acts on it. It is not uncommon for members to get the substitute for the bill when they walk into the meeting.
- Key players on the Senate side: Robert Stivers, he’s the kingmaker. Can kill any bill if he wants to. HIs leadership team: Max Wise, Robby Mills, and Mike Wilson.
- Other key players: Senators West and Tichenor, they control the Ed Committee and are friendly to RTRI. The Senate Ed Committee.
Big Picture on This
- Not much time… have to move now and fast
- Pressure has to be exerted on both sides: House and Senate. Pressure has to be put on kingmakers and all the others listed above. If they can be persuaded to leave things alone, KY remains a “may” state
- Ways to pressure- email and call campaigns asap. KCFD is designing a call to action with a way for folks to click and send an email to key players. Will also have directions for how to call the LRC. All this must be pushed out though all partners to promote widespread pushback
- Another very powerful way- meetings with the individuals listed above. A group of one to three can call and ask for a meeting with legislators. Fridays and Mondays are good days.
- Need- faith leaders involved and calling these folks. Need to recruit as many as we can from districts across the state and preferably from key players’ districts
- May need to show up in Frankfort for a committee meeting on a day’s notice. These folks move quickly on purpose. Will need to notify press and get them there also
Messaging
- The current law allows for local choice. Mandating removes decision-making from local elected officials who know their schools and communities best.
- It’s not acceptable to mandate that school districts give up 30+ hours of instruction to outside groups and allow arts, music, PE and other subjects to be de-valued.
- Given all the discussion on how to improve school performance and the bills being passed, this is counter to all that. How does this bill improve student achievement? It doesn’t
- Allowing the AG to directly sue school boards is an overreach. Pitting the AG against school boards is unacceptable.
- The largest RTRI group wanting to spread in KY is LifeWise. They use faulty data, make unproven claims, and give outright mistruths about themselves. This group is tied to highly controversial organizations and individuals, and promotes beliefs that not all hold. No school district should be forced to partner with any group that creates distraction and division.