Glass talks removing COVID rules, critical race theory, education losses

School board advisory committee gets updates.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – School boards across the state are gearing up for some potentially difficult decisions in the weeks ahead, decisions ranging from ways to catch students up on the academic progress they’ve lost in the last 18 months, the ongoing pandemic, funding questions and curriculum pressures from the Legislature.

But as State Education Commissioner Jason Glass told an advisory board Thursday, one of the best will be how to phase out restrictions as COVID numbers slowly fall across the state.

“Now we have to start thinking about how do we start removing and reducing the virus mitigation strategies that we’ve had in place. What’s the right order, what’s the right scale, and when is the right time,” Glass said.

On other topics, Glass said curriculum decisions like critical race theory should be left up to local school boards. He called taking away free discussion “un-American.”

“This is not something we need to be creating a gag effect that will make students and teachers afraid of bringing up difficult, challenging conversations,” Glass stated, noting state lawmakers can’t make things like COVID rules a local responsibility and then try to “micromanage” curriculum from Frankfort.

And while the state standardized test scores released recently point out how much grounds schools have to make up with student learning losses, it also can be an opportunity, especially with millions in federal dollars available for everything from specialty programs to extra staff and summer camps.

“That’s I think an exciting opportunity over the next two and half years for what supports or experiences we can put in place if needed to assist students in catching up but also to make up for some of the experiences they’ve not had over the past year,” he told the group.