Kevin Willis

Governor Steve Beshear is warming to a modified proposal to raise the high school dropout age. Beshear has long pushed to raise the dropout age to 18. The Senate Education Committee passed a bill today that lets individual school boards opt in to a higher dropout age. It also requires those boards to provide the Kentucky Department of Education with proof that a solid alternative program exists in their districts.

Lawmakers from both parties appear eager to make changes to Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system.

The system puts a heavy emphasis on student test scores. The new system was put in place as state leaders secured millions of dollars in funding from the federal “Race to the Top” program. The Tennessean newspaper reports nearly 20 bills have been filed by lawmakers to alter the evaluation system, despite calls from Governor Bill Haslam to leave it alone for now.

A judge has ruled that Kentucky's election filing deadline will be postponed one week while he decides the constitutionality of new legislative districts in the Commonwealth. 

Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday afternoon, hours before the original deadlines for legislative hopefuls to file candidacy papers.

According to a press release from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), a dive team working for KYTC is examining three piers of the U.S. 68/KY 80 bridge over Kentucky Lake to detect any critical shifting of the pier substructure. The inspection area includes Pier 6, which may have shifted when a cargo vessel crashed into the 80-year-old bridge Thursday night, ripping away a 322-foot span of the bridge.