House Bills 65 and 116 have moved to the Primary and Secondary Education House Committee. These bills advocate for the display of the Ten Commandments in public elementary and secondary schools. 

“In small print below the last commandment shall appear a notation concerning the purpose of the display, as follows: “The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States,” House Bill 65 says regarding the justification of the bill. 

House Bill 116 lists the Ten Commandments among documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Kentucky Constitution, that public school teachers can display in their classrooms. 

“There shall be no content-based censorship of American history or heritage in the Commonwealth based on religious references in these writings, documents, and records,” House Bill 116 reads. 

The Kentucky legislature has long promised to eliminate the state income tax, and HB 1 is part of that process. Under the current system, the income tax can be lowered by 0.5% if certain triggers are met to keep the budget afloat, and since that has happened, Governor Beshear signed HB 1 into law, reducing Kentucky’s income tax from 4.0% to 3.5%. 

HB 775 takes this system a step further. Now, income taxes can be lowered by increments as small as 0.1%, a change that would require a much smaller threshold than the current 0.5% cuts. 

Under the current law, for a cut to happen, two things must be true. First, the Budget Reserve Trust Fund (or the “rainy day” fund) has to be equal to 10% of the state’s General Fund (the money they collect through most taxes). This includes the budget hit that the proposed tax cut would bring. 

The second is that, for a 0.5% reduction, revenues must exceed expenditures by an amount that is greater than a 1% income tax on Kentuckians. 

HB 775 does not change either of these. It only introduces four new cuts that the legislature can bring: 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, and 0.4%. It also says that, for any proposed cut, revenue must exceed expenditures by twice the amount that the cut proposes. 

That’s densely worded, so let’s see an example. In 2028, the year HB 775 would go into effect, a 1% income tax would yield $1.3 billion. If revenues exceeded expenditures by that amount, then a 0.5% tax cut would be allowed, which would reduce the budget by $650 million. This is all true under current law. Under HB 775, if revenue exceeded expenditures by only $544 million—the same amount as a 0.4% income tax—the legislature could cut taxes by 0.2%—half of the amount they could reduce with a balanced budget.  It’s important to note that these cuts can only be as low as 0.1% and as high as 0.5%. 

The way current tax law works is complicated, and HB 775 does not change the formulas for when a tax cut is allowed. 

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy released a more thorough analysis, available here.

Senate Bill 89, an act relating to water pollution, was delivered to the governor on March 13, 2025. This bill will limit the definition of “waters of the Commonwealth” to only include “navigable waters.” The change will remove water pollution protections for groundwater and some wetlands, raising concerns among environmental activists. 

“With respect to concerns that have been voiced regarding permitting delays, Senate Bill 89 and its House Committee Substitute remain overly broad and apply a machete to an issue that needs a scalpel, at a cost to Kentuckians,” Secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet Rebecca Goodman stated in a letter to Kentucky Lawmakers.  

Others have raised concerns that the bill will affect drinking water quality, which would cost the state money to provide water sources with testing and water purifiers. 

“The increased costs of additional water testing would be passed down to Kentuckians through utility rate increases – an extra cost Kentuckians do not need to bear in the face of rising costs at the grocery store and the gas pump,” the letter reads.

House Bill 520, an act relating to Open Records, was delivered to the governor on March 14, 2025. The bill passed 78-21 in the House and 25-12 in the Senate. 

Under this bill, police can deny the release of records relating to an open investigation if the release “could pose an articulable risk of harm to the agency or its investigation.” The bill would help keep the identity of informants and  witnesses classified while investigations are ongoing. 

Once the investigation is completed, the records will be subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act. While supporters of the bill claim that it will keep cases confidential, some worry that it will give the police too much power over deciding what records they want to release to the public. 

House Bill 399, introduced on Feb. 6 by Rep. John Blanton (R), was inspired by protestors’ behavior during the House’s deliberation on Senate Bill 150 last year. Citizens stood outside of the Capitol Building to protest against the removal of LGBTQ+ protections for minors. 

Under HB 399, a person can be charged with interference with a legislative proceeding when they have intent to “disrupt, impede, or prevent the General Assembly from conducting business” with disorderly or disruptive conduct. 

The bill is very clear that it does not prohibit assembly in “traditional public forums” including the Capitol rotunda and outdoor areas of Capitol grounds.

Police officers are allowed to remove any person if their removal is requested by the  Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, President of the Senate, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate or the Chair of the Committee of The General Assembly.

The bill has passed through the House and Senate and is now on the Governor’s desk to be signed as of March 13.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed Executive Order 2024-632 on Sept. 18, 2024 to outlaw all forms of conversion therapy and anti-LGBTQ+ counseling for minors. 

“The intent of this practice is to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and methods include aversion therapy, talk therapy, shaming, and hypnosis, among other techniques. Conversion therapy rests on the premise that an LGBTQ+ individual’s identity is pathological and can be “repaired” or “fixed.” This false premise has no basis in medicine or science,” the order reads. 

House Bill 495 seeks to invalidate this order. Republican Representative David Hale introduced the bill on Feb. 13. The bill vouches to protect mental health care professionals and ordained ministries that seek to practice any kind of counseling or therapy from discrimination. 

While this bill does not explicitly mention conversion therapy, it does directly invalidate Executive Order 2024-632, stating that the order “shall be of no force or effect as of the effective date of this Act through January 1, 2028.” 

The bill has passed through both the House and Senate and has now been delivered to the Governor. Stay tuned for more updates. 

Introduced on Feb. 4, House Bill 241 would allow for additional non-traditional instruction (NTI) days. Currently, Kentucky schools are allotted up to 10 NTI days per year. HB 241 would allow for five disaster relief days in addition to these days.

Due to flooding in eastern Kentucky, some schools have already used more than their allotted days, so HB 241 would forgive up to five of these days. The original bill made its way through most of the legislative process, but then an unexpected change was tacked on. 

The bill was amended when it was sent to the Senate. The Department of Education had planned to cap the enrollment for the Kentucky Virtual School Academy, however the amendment to HB 241 would block this cap. 

This change has made the bill more controversial, even leading its original sponsor to withdraw his support. After moving into a compromise conference committee, the bill has now been passed to the Governor’s desk.  Stay tuned for more updates. 

On Feb. 12, 2025, House Bill 4 was introduced in Frankfort. It has 20 sponsors, all of them Republicans. The bill is titled “An Act relating to postsecondary institutions” and focuses on the removal of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives from Kentucky’s universities. Current DEI initiatives that would be impacted include specialized programs, training, university admissions, housing assignments, scholarship eligibility and more.

“An institution shall not…provide any differential treatment or benefits to an individual, including a candidate or applicant for employment, promotion, contract, contract renewal, or admission, on the basis of the individual’s religion, race, sex, color, or national origin,” the bill reads.

A similar bill that has been introduced is SB 165 which proposes the removal of DEI in K-12 schools. On the federal level, Donald Trump has issued a series of  recent executive orders targeting DEI in education. 

HB 4 has passed both the House and Senate and has now been delivered to the Governor’s desk. If HB 4 passes, all of Kentucky’s colleges will have to comply by June 30, 2025.

Kentucky House Bill 208 was introduced on Jan. 10. Eight of Kentucky’s senators are sponsoring the bill.

“The policy shall, at a minimum, forbid a student’s use of a personal telecommunications device during the school day, except during an emergency or if directed to do so by a teacher for an instructional purpose,” the introduction of the policy states. 

The bill also says that schools must utilize their most recent filtering technology to make sure that social media, sexually explicit material or other “objectionable content” is not easily available to students. 

While the bill does not include specific policies, all school districts would be required to implement some type of protection against students accessing “objectionable content” in school. 

“I will say that their attention span changed and what I saw as a principal is that even my very, very best teachers couldn’t hold their attention anymore,” Fern Creek Principal Rebecca Nicolas said. Fern Creek High School implemented a full cell phone ban at the beginning of this school year.

The bill has been passed in the House and Senate and has been delivered to the Governor’s desk. Stay tuned for more updates. 

The Kentucky Education Equality Protection Act (KEEP Act) under Senate Bill 165 was introduced on Feb. 13, 2025. It is sponsored by 11 of Kentucky’s senators. 

The KEEP Act, if enacted, will prohibit schools from giving benefits to students based on their race, religion, sex, color or national origin. It will end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in hiring teachers and administrators. School districts may not use any funds to have a DEI office or keep a contract with an employee for DEI reasons. No Kentucky school employees can participate in DEI training, in or out of the state. Schools cannot purchase or distribute any content or materials that promote or justify “discriminatory concepts” or DEI initiatives.

“This legislation threatens to reverse the progress our students have made as well as the jobs of JCPS staff who work hard every day to help our students make positive gains in academics and life skills,” said JCPS in a statement. 

This bill is now in the hands of the Senate education committee and will continue to be debated over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for updates.