Most of us Kentuckians must rise early. The days are long, sometimes hard, sometimes blissful, but always meaningful. We spend our lives serving those we love – our wives, husbands, children, extended family, and dearest friends. Kentuckians are bonded through sweat, tears, and laughter. When our neighbors fall on hard times, we pick them up. When we find ourselves on a knee, there is usually a hand when we look up.
For some Kentuckians, November brings a tough decision. However, Kentuckians have an opportunity to extend its benevolence from Pike to Fulton counties. Kentuckians have a chance to change course and progress toward a better day.
Since 2015, something’s been amiss. An outsider who demands so much of us, takes from us, scolds us, and offers little to nothing in return has led our state. Perhaps this is where our anxiety about this election truly lies. We know what’s right. Which is why so many Kentuckians find comfort in the candidates whose families’ have resided in our commonwealth for generations.
Like many of us, Jacqueline Coleman coached our kids. As an educator, she taught our children. She founded a non-profit to give back to Kentucky and her home of Mercer County, where her family has resided for five generations. She experienced what we all have. She’s experienced the highs and lows of Bluegrass living.
Coleman is the role model of which so many Kentuckians seek. She’s an assistant principal at Nelson County High School and helps empower our state’s women to excel through her non-profit Lead Kentucky. She wants to help create a world-class public education system and to uplift rural Kentucky. She will give a voice to those who feel shut out, but refuse to back down, which is why she will be a great Lieutenant Governor, and a great advisor to our next governor, Andy Beshear.
Andy Beshear’s record speaks for itself. Put his last name aside for a moment, and you will find a Kentuckian who attended public schools like most of us and an Attorney General who has fought relentlessly for teachers and against those who fueled our opioid epidemic, who flooded our state with pills and rogue doctors and drug traffickers.
It was Beshear who defeated harmful legislation in court, halting the sewer pension bill in its tracks, preventing $18 million in cuts to universities and community colleges, has helped secure the testing of every Kentucky rape kit, launched Scam Alerts, the state’s first direct text scam warning system, where he has signed up 24,000 seniors and returned $2 million that was stolen.
Beshear and Coleman have Kentuckians’ best interests at heart. They know what it means to be public servants and to give more than one receives. For the past four years, we’ve seen cuts and more cuts. We’ve seen the well-off become more well-off, while the working class carries more of the burden.
Kentuckians must stop accepting less and less. We deserve affordable health care. Beshear is fighting to keep 1.3 million Kentuckians covered by not allowing insurers to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. He wants to prevent thousands of families from being thrown off the Medicaid program.
Kentuckians deserve good-paying jobs that are only created through increased demand, not the lie of corporate tax breaks. He understands increasing wages, innovation, and investment in public education can create a thriving job market in our state.
Beshear and Coleman will fight corruption. They believe in term limits, transparency, and will require all elected officials to release tax returns, and banning contractors from giving gifts to public officials.
They will fight for affordable college, inclusiveness, and to address climate change. Beshear and Coleman will seek new revenue through expanded gaming and Medical Marijuana. Beshear will bring an end to Right-to-Work, and strengthen unions that contribute to higher wages and better benefits. Unlike those who want to cut veteran’s benefits, Beshear has a plan to increase job-skills training for Kentucky’s 300,000 veterans.
We’ve sacrificed enough as a state and it’s time to elect those who have our interests at heart and not their own and that of special interests. It’s time to return to our roots and do what we know is right.
Voices of Teaching Equity 