Teaching Profession News in Brief

Teacher in Ky. Bounces Foe

By Madeline Will & The Associated Press — May 29, 2018 1 min read
Travis Brenda, a teacher at Rockcastle County High School in Mt. Vernon, Ky., credits teachers for his primary win.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Weeks after the teacher walkouts in Kentucky, educators scored a surprising victory: High school math teacher Travis Brenda defeated Jonathan Shell, the House majority floor leader, in the state primary election.

Brenda, who has never run for public office before, won the Republican nomination last week against Shell, who had co-authored the bill that made controversial changes to the state’s public pension system that covers teachers. The rushed passage of the bill, which moves new teachers to a hybrid pension plan, enraged educators across the state. They stormed the capitol several times this legislative session, leaving their classrooms and forcing dozens of schools to close.

In the wake of the widespread activism this spring, teachers across the country have been filing to run for office. Forty current or former Kentucky educators filed to run for office this year. Sixteen of them faced primaries last week, and of those, seven won their races. Four Republican incumbents in Kentucky faced a primary challenge from a teacher. Shell, who was the only GOP incumbent to lose his race against a teacher, was also the only one out of that group to vote for the pension bill.

“They picked on the wrong group,” Brenda said. “Not just the educators, but all state employees are rising up, and we’re not going to let things be done to us.”

Educators in other states are hoping to capitalize on the momentum generated by the series of walkouts, strikes, and protests in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and West Virginia this spring. In West Virginia, where teachers went on strike for nine days, an incumbent Republican state senator who was accused of saying “nasty” things about teachers and introducing bills that didn’t have teachers’ best interests in mind lost his primary race earlier this month.

Brenda, who has been teaching for 20 years and is a fourth-generation farmer, said that he credits teacher support for his victory. He said it sends a message that teachers and other public employees won’t be silent.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the May 30, 2018 edition of Education Week as Teacher in Ky. Bounces Foe

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Pave the Path to Excellence in Math
Empower your students' math journey with Sue O'Connell, author of “Math in Practice” and “Navigating Numeracy.”
Content provided by hand2mind
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Combatting Teacher Shortages: Strategies for Classroom Balance and Learning Success
Learn from leaders in education as they share insights and strategies to support teachers and students.
Content provided by DreamBox Learning
Classroom Technology K-12 Essentials Forum Reading Instruction and AI: New Strategies for the Big Education Challenges of Our Time
Join the conversation as experts in the field explore these instructional pain points and offer game-changing guidance for K-12 leaders and educators.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Teachers Work 50-Plus Hours a Week—And Other Findings From a New Survey on Teacher Pay
Planning, preparation, and other duties stretch teachers' working hours long past what's in their contracts.
5 min read
Elementary teacher, working at her desk in an empty classroom.
martinedoucet/E+
Teaching Profession From Our Research Center How Many Teachers Work in Their Hometown? Here's the Latest Data
New survey data shows that many teachers stay close to home, but do they want to?
1 min read
Illustration of a 3D map with arrows going all over the states.
iStock/Getty
Teaching Profession In Their Own Words 'I Was Not Done': How Politics Drove This Teacher of the Year Out of the Classroom
Karen Lauritzen was accused of being a pro-LGBTQ+ activist. The consequences derailed her career.
6 min read
Karen Lauritzen stands for a portrait on the Millikin University Campus in Decatur, Ill., on August 30, 2023. Idaho’s Teacher of the Year moved to Illinois for a new job due to right-wing harassment over her support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter.
Karen Lauritzen stands for a portrait on the Millikin University Campus in Decatur, Ill., on August 30, 2023. Laurizen, Idaho’s 2023 Teacher of the Year, moved to Illinois for a new job due to harassment over her support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter.
Neeta R. Satam for Education Week
Teaching Profession Reported Essay Public Schools Rely on Underpaid Female Labor. It’s Not Sustainable
Women now have more career options. Is that why they are leaving the teaching profession?
9 min read
Illustration of contemporary teacher looking at a line-up of mostly female teachers through the history of public education in the United States.
Traci Debarko for Education Week