Kentucky’s GOP Governor Says Teacher Protests Enable Child Sexual Assault

Matt Bevin’s comments outrage educators demonstrating at the state capitol.

Teachers from across Kentucky gather inside the state Capitol to rally for increased funding for education on Friday. Bryan Woolston/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Friday, just hours after protesting teachers flooded Kentucky’s capitol building to rally against a pension reform plan and call for increased school funding, the state’s Republican governor, Matt Bevin, suggested school closures caused by the striking educators were endangering children.

“Here’s what’s crazy to me,” Bevin told a reporter from WDRB. “You know how many hundreds of thousands of children today were left home alone? I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.” He spoke of children ingesting poison or being physically assaulted because they were home and “a single parent didn’t have any money to take care of them.” 

The governor’s response to the striking teachers sparked outcry and disbelief from state lawmakers and educators. “My mouth was hanging open and I don’t even know what I can tell you,” Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Bevin’s comments came as thousands of teachers gathered in Frankfort on Friday to protest Bevin’s signing of a bill to overhaul the state’s pension system. They were also calling on Kentucky lawmakers to override the governor’s veto of a $22 billion budget bill that contained significant education funding. On Friday, the state house and senate reversed the veto.

The long-brewing demonstrations followed protests by educators in Oklahoma, Arizona, and West Virginia, who were frustrated about low pay and deep cuts to school funding. The showdown between Kentucky teachers and Bevin ramped up in recent weeks after he warned educators that it was illegal for them to walkout. The Kentucky Education Association recently joined a lawsuit filed by Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general, Andy Beshear, challenging the pension reform bill.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate