Current:Home > FinanceBill meant to improve math skills passes as Kentucky lawmakers approach end of legislative session -Wealth Evolution Experts
Bill meant to improve math skills passes as Kentucky lawmakers approach end of legislative session
View
Date:2025-04-12 13:27:04
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Legislation aimed at improving the math skills of Kentucky students won final passage Monday as lawmakers considered the final stacks of bills before concluding this year’s legislative session.
House and Senate members were serenaded with renditions of “My Old Kentucky Home” at the start of Day 60 of the session, which began in early January. They wrapped up tributes to retiring lawmakers and staff before plunging into the final round of votes to send bills to Gov. Andy Beshear.
The Republican supermajority legislature will have no opportunity to consider veto overrides if the Democratic governor rejects any of the measures passed Monday. Republican lawmakers spent last Friday overriding a series of gubernatorial vetoes.
Bills gaining final passage Monday included legislation intended to provide a strong foundational education in math for Kentucky’s elementary school students. House Bill 162 aims to improve math scores by expanding training and support for teachers and hands-on intervention for students.
Republican state Rep. James Tipton, the bill’s sponsor, has called it a “significant step forward.”
“It will provide a mathematics education that ensures every student can excel,” Tipton, the House Education Committee chairman, said earlier in the legislative session. “The educational standards of the past have failed to meet the needs of many students and left many students behind.”
Another bill winning final passage Monday is a regulatory follow-up to last year’s action by lawmakers that will legalize medical marijuana in the Bluegrass State starting in 2025. Local governments and schools will be allowed to opt-out of the state program.
The follow-up bill — HB829 — did not expand the list of conditions eligible for use of medical marijuana. Beshear had urged lawmakers to broaden access to medical marijuana to include a longer list of severe health conditions. Conditions that will be eligible for medical cannabis when the program starts include cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes, a leading supporter of legalizing medical cannabis, signaled Monday that the medical cannabis program is on track to begin at the start of next year. The program had faced a new challenge when the Senate put language in its version of the main state budget bill that would have set conditions to unlock funding to oversee the program. Nemes said that language was changed in the final version of the budget approved by legislative leaders and later by the full legislature.
“I think it’s going to go forward,” Nemes said Monday. “The language that was in the Senate version of the budget was changed substantially. We still have the protections in place, but it will not be a poison pill, if you will. So I feel good about this. In Jan. 1, 2025, people who qualify will be able to get this medication.”
veryGood! (85235)
Related
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Irina Shayk Proves Lingerie Can Be High-Fashion With Risqué Cannes Film Festival Look
- Brittany Snow Hints She Was “Blindsided” by Tyler Stanaland Divorce
- Is there a 'healthiest' soda? Not really, but there are some alternatives you should consider.
- Angelina Jolie nearly fainted making Maria Callas movie: 'My body wasn’t strong enough'
- Why LeBron James Is Considering Retiring From the NBA After 20 Seasons
- Some people get sick from VR. Why?
- Climate Change Threatens a Giant of West Virginia’s Landscape, and It’s Rippling Through Ecosystems and Lives
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- Climate Change Threatens 60% of Toxic Superfund Sites, GAO Finds
Ranking
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- How to say goodbye to someone you love
- A first-generation iPhone sold for $190K at an auction this week. Here's why.
- Accidental shootings by children keep happening. How toddlers are able to fire guns.
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Feds penalize auto shop owner who dumped 91,000 greasy pennies in ex-worker's driveway
- University of New Mexico Football Player Jaden Hullaby Dead at 21 Days After Going Missing
- Judge to unseal identities of 3 people who backed George Santos' $500K bond
Recommendation
Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
Walmart will dim store light weekly for those with sensory disabilities
Alaska Orders Review of All North Slope Oil Wells After Spill Linked to Permafrost
Does sex get better with age? This senior sex therapist thinks so
Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
Rep. Jamie Raskin says his cancer is in remission
Damaged section of Interstate 95 to partially reopen earlier than expected following bridge collapse
Biden refers to China's Xi as a dictator during fundraiser