By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
“I am firm in my belief that a teacher lives on and on through his students. Good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal.”
The late Jesse Stuart was being prophetic when he proudly wrote and often spoke those inspiring words many years ago.
To his credit, he practiced what he preached as a champion of education throughout his life, as a beloved teacher, respected school administrator, successful author and world-traveling professor.
The man of letters from W-Hollow also was an articulate activist who railed against political interference in the public schools and inadequate funding.
Thousands of posters with his words about teachers have been displayed in American classrooms because most teachers, in my opinion, were and are proud of the influence they have on generations of students.
Many Kentucky teachers have been carrying different kinds of posters in recent years in their protests in Frankfort and elsewhere about their pay and retirement benefits.
Sadly, members of the Kentucky General Assembly have gone home from the 2026 budget session with little, if anything, in the state’s new two-year spending plan for increasing teacher pay.
One of my granddaughters is graduating from a private university in a western state where the starting salary for a classroom teacher is more than twice what we pay here in Kentucky. And it’s not California.
The Republican supermajority in the General Assembly seems to be oblivious to the growing teacher shortage despite special programs to help four-year college graduates quickly learn how to be teachers.
Yet, those GOP lawmakers found hundreds of millions of dollars for pork barrel projects in and near their legislative districts.
I predict we will see and hear much more about teachers and their value to Kentucky in next year’s governor’s election. We might even get to the point where our rural and small city legislators won’t try to micro-manage our urban school districts by juggling the number of school board members.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
