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Dear Kentucky Superintendents,
Today, the Kentucky Education Association (KEA) expressed outrage that a Kentucky citizen, who is not a public school educator, emailed political content to teachers, who are public employees with publicly available email addresses. The organization called for an immediate investigation of the emails by the Kentucky Board of Education. Yet the KEA must be aware that Kentucky citizens are legally permitted to email public employees, and neither the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) nor the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) have, nor should have, the legal authority to investigate those citizens. In fact, I understand that the KEA itself routinely uses teachers’ public email addresses to distribute political material; yet they choose to criticize this email.
In their statement, KEA leaders likened the email in question to emails I received from Kentucky teachers using their professional email accounts. But they are very different. As a reminder, those teachers used their school email addresses to email me incredibly racist and homophobic language. I shared those emails with the teachers’ superintendents and had no further dealings in the matter. It is unclear why KEA leaders would correlate teachers using their professional email accounts to directly insult and degrade the Commissioner of Education, with a non-educator using his personal email account to email political material to teachers.
Furthermore, the KBE is not the entity to investigate this matter, as the KEA claims. The KBE has management and control of the common schools and all programs operated in these schools. Pursuant to KRS 156.029, “the primary function of the board shall be to develop and adopt policies and administrative regulation…by which the Department of Education shall be governed.” Likewise, KRS 156.160 provides that the KBE “shall promulgate administrative regulations establishing standards which school districts shall meet in student, program, service, and operational performance.”
Under KRS 156.210, it is the Commissioner that has the authority to investigate “mismanagement, misconduct, violation of law, or wrongful or improper use of any district or state school fund, or neglect in the performance of duty on the part of any official."
As campaign season is in now full swing, Kentuckians should be aware of the following concerning the use of Kentucky public schools email addresses and accounts:
- There is no Kentucky law or regulation that prevents a politician, non-Kentucky public school employee/non-state government employee or private organization from sending an e-mail communication to public school e-mail accounts wanting votes and/or money.
- KDE does not provide the e-mail address lists of all K-12 teachers, principals, or superintendents, nor allow direct access to any of our statewide e-mail distribution groups. However, it is possible for third parties to find names and/or their e-mail addresses located on the district’s website or figure out a Kentucky educator’s public email address if they know their name and the district they work in and thus create their own email distribution group for their own use.
- If any public school employee or student receives an email from a politician or a political supporter/group, they may work through their district’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) or contact KDE by emailing KETS Service Desk or by calling (866) 538-7435.
Finally, for Kentucky public school educators using an e-mail account within the K-12 environment, KDE’s direction has been and continues to be:
- You are not to use K-12 government resources at any time to create/send/distribute political messages;
- You can individually and organizationally block/filter e-mail communications from any person (including politicians asking for monetary donations/votes); and
- You should always bring these types of unwanted/inappropriate e-mail communications to the attention of your district leadership right away so they can assist you and prevent further distribution of that specific person and/or email to the rest of the district and the Kentucky public school system.
While none of us enjoy receiving spam or unwanted email laden with political rhetoric, I believe the work of the KDE should remain focused on its mission of ensuring each and every student in this Commonwealth is empowered and equipped to pursue a successful future. Our children should not take a back seat to partisan posturing.
Sincerely,
Kentucky Department of Education
300 Sower Blvd, 5th Floor
Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 564-3141, ext. 4806
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