Hold on to your hats - this is going to be quite a year in Kentucky politics. Republicans finally in charge of the House and Senate are acting like bulls escaping from 90 years of solitary into a Pottery Barn.

There are no brakes on the bulls. The Kentucky General Assembly has no women or minorities in leadership. (There are women chairing or co-chairing committees.)

Here are the first three House bills -

First bill - HB 1 - Right to Work

Second bill - HB 2 - Abortion

Third bill - HB 3 - Prevailing wage

And then there's Senate Bill 1. This is the synopsis-

AN ACT relating to public education and declaring an emergency.
Amend KRS 156.557 to require school districts to develop and implement a personnel evaluation system based on a statewide framework for teaching; prohibit the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) from imposing reporting requirements related to the system on local districts; require evaluations annually for teachers who have not attained continuing service status and every three years for teachers with continuing service status, principals, and assistant principals; prohibit evaluation results from being included in school accountability; amend KRS 156.160 to allow a foreign language course, career and technical education course, or a computer technology or programming course to meet the arts and humanities requirement for high school graduation; amend KRS 158.305 to require KDE to provide assistance in implementing a response-to-intervention system if requested by a local district; amend KRS 158.6453 to implement a process for reviewing academic standards and assessments; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations for the administration of the process; delete program reviews and audits from the statewide assessment system; revise the statewide assessment requirements; prohibit the statewide assessment from including any standards not included in the board-approved standards; require a college admissions and placement exam to be given in the fall of grade 10 and spring of grade 11 and require KDE to pay for it; delete provisions regarding WorkKeys assessments; amend requirements for the annual school report card; require KDE to implement a standards review process for visual and performing arts, practical living skills, and foreign language and require KDE to provide recommendations to schools for including those programs, and a writing program, in their curriculum; direct KDE to develop a school profile report for schools to describe implementation of the mandated standards in the visual and performing arts, practical living skills, and foreign language; amend KRS 158.6455 to revise the accountability system; require school improvement results to look at growth over three years as compared to similar schools; include progress toward English proficiency, quality of school climate and safety, high school graduation rates, and postsecondary readiness in the accountability system; require each local workforce investment board to compile a list of industry-recognized certifications; require KDE to pay for the cost of initial assessments taken to achieve industry-recognized certifications; amend the criteria for schools and districts receiving consequences and assistance under administrative regulations promulgated by the Kentucky Board of Education; amend KRS 158.649 to revise dates regarding review and reporting of school improvement plans; amend KRS 158.782 to describe KDE's monitoring and review process for low- performing schools and change the criteria for the Kentucky Board of Education providing highly skilled education assistance to schools and districts; amend KRS 158.805 to allow Commonwealth school improvement funds to be used for personnel costs; amend KRS 158.840 to prohibit KDE from requiring intervention reporting except in certain circumstances; amend KRS 160.345 to allow an alternative principal selection process in any school district and delete language regarding principal replacement; amend KRS 160.346 to delete provisions relating to the low-performing school identification and intervention process; add provisions for identifying schools for targeted support and improvement and comprehensive support and improvement; describe intervention requirements for schools identified for targeted support and improvement; define and describe a turnaround audit and intervention process for schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement; require the Kentucky Board of Education to establish exit criteria for schools identified for targeted support and improvement and comprehensive support and improvement; require a school to enter an intervention process selected by the commissioner after three years without exiting comprehensive support and improvement status; delete provisions pertaining to the current school audit process and the current intervention options approved by the Kentucky Board of Education; amend various KRS sections to conform; EMERGENCY.

Anything this long does not bode well - and it's an EMERGENCY, for heaven's sake. That means it will go into effect immediately upon enactment into law. Hey, teachers, ready for more change?

And we are into the very first week of the thirty day session.

It's going to be quite a year.