Bevin would have sweeping power to abolish university boards under new proposal

A bill filed by Senate President Robert Stivers would grant sweeping powers to the governor to abolish every public educational governing board in Kentucky, including all eight state universities, the Kentucky Board of Education and the Council on Postsecondary Education.

Senate Bill 107 would allow Gov. Matt Bevin to remove a member or an entire board if he finds that the member or board is no longer functioning according to statutory mandate. That includes the “inability to hold regular meetings, to elect a chairperson, to establish a quorum, or to reach consensus among its members in order to carry out its primary function.”

Senate Minority Leader Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, called the proposal “a huge power grab.”

“This is not the way democracy is supposed to work,” Jones said. “We have a legal system where governors are allowed to make appointments beyond their terms because you don’t want mass change in every board and agency every time there’s a change in administration for purely partisan reasons. The people of Kentucky are going to see this as a total abuse of power.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article125443734.html