Kentucky House OKs Planning-Time Expansion for Elementary School Teachers

Kentucky teachers would have a minimum of 24 minutes a day in their schedule for planning under a bill moving through the General Assembly.The state House easily approved the measure Friday that requires teachers to get at least 120 minutes a week for non-teaching activities.  “The big issue of this bill is teacher directed, so the teacher can decide that day what she feels or he feels they need to plan for," state Rep., Rita Smart, a Richmond Democrat and the primary bill sponsor.Smart said high and middle school teachers get the appropriate planning time—but elementary school teachers in some districts get no planning time, Smart says.The measure, which goes on to the Senate, passed by a vote of 85 to 8 on Friday.Rep. Kim King, a Harrodsburg Republican, voted against it. She believes the planning time issue should be addressed by each schools' councils, as the legislature have given them "the authority to make that decision.” School-based decision-making councils have three teacher representatives, King said