Statement on the General Assembly Passing HB 178

The Kentucky Student Voice Team is pleased to see the preservation of the non-voting student and teacher seats on the Kentucky Board of Education with the final passage of House Bill 178. We extend our gratitude to the bipartisan group of legislators who were able to protect these positions.

Granting students a seat on the Kentucky Board of Education affirms Kentucky’s commitment to giving every student a high quality, equitable education. We hope that other education governance bodies follow the Board’s model of including students as partners.

This is a victory, but there remain many victories to come. Creating the safest, most inclusive, and most engaging education environment to contribute to a vibrant democracy requires integrating students as partners in schools and districts across the Commonwealth. We are committed to making this vision a reality and hopeful that our peers, teachers, and lawmakers will join us in doing so.

‍The Kentucky Student Voice Team is a statewide organization of young people who are co-creating more just, democratic Kentucky schools & communities as research, policy & advocacy partners.