LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The latest debate between Gov. Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron was their most tense one yet. The hour-long program on Kentucky Education Television featured sharp exchanges between the candidates - particularly on the topic of public education.
Beshear, who is continuing to campaign as a supporter of public education, attacked Cameron for his position on school vouchers.
"Daniel Cameron's approach to education includes vouchers," said Beshear. "He will take tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars away from public education and send it to fancy public schools. Now, he'll try to tell you it's not in his enumerated plan, but in July on the campaign trail, he said this race is about vouchers."
Cameron was then directly asked if he supports vouchers.
"I would support, primarily, our public school system," answered Cameron. "Look, we need to make sure we expand opportunity and choice, but we need to make sure at the same time - look, more than 90% of our kids are in public schools. Look, parents at home want to make sure their kids are caught up. This governor shut your schools down for nearly two years."
Beshear repeatedly criticized Cameron for not directly answering the question.
"I oppose vouchers - 100%. They steal money from our public schools and send them to our private schools. The reason he won't answer is he supports vouchers," said Beshear. "He has time and time again. But what's concerning is he won't be honest with you and answer a direct question."
Cameron fired back with criticism that the governor did not do enough to catch Kentucky's students up from the learning loss that occurred during the COVID pandemic.
"You were for shutting our schools down for two years," said Cameron. "Did you shut our schools down for two years? Do we have learning loss because of those shutdowns?"
"Andy Beshear shut you down for two years. Your kids are behind on learning reading, science and math - those indicators for success. A parent, at home watching right now, wants to make sure their kids are ready to go to college. Under this governor, we don't have that," Cameron added.
Cameron also attacked Beshear for being "soft on this issue."
"About public education?" Beshear replied.
"I chose a public school educator as my lieutenant governor. He chose someone who voted for Matt Bevin's sewer bill that would've stolen the pensions of every public school employee," added Beshear. "And then when I got it declared unconstitutional, [he] said he wanted the governor to call a special session to try to steal them again."
The issue of teacher pension reform caused mass teacher protests several years ago. Public educators who were angered by former governor Matt Bevin's attempts said they would mobilize and get involved in elections. In 2019, they were credited with helping Beshear win.
On Monday night, Beshear highlighted his efforts to fund the teacher pension system.
"I have put in my budget, not only fully funding our pensions, but extra money for our pensions," said Beshear.
Cameron argued that the pension system was in bad shape because of longtime Democratic leadership.
"The reason our pensions are in the mess that they're in is because the Beshear Administration and his father's administration and democrat leadership in Frankfort swiped the pensions for a number of years," said Cameron. "They took money out of those pensions to pay for pet projects and that is the reason teachers' pensions have been in the shape that they're in."
Some of their other sharp exchanges came when Beshear was asked to critique his policies during the height of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, while Cameron was pressed on what he would have done differently. The virus has killed more than 19,000 Kentuckians since early 2020.
The pandemic dominated the first half of the governor’s term, and his restrictions on businesses and gatherings have come under constant attack from Cameron, the state’s attorney general.
Beshear said he believed he made the best decisions he could have with the information he had at the time. Talking about the global health crisis in personal terms, the governor noted that he mentioned every pandemic death in Kentucky during his many press conferences to update people about the virus.
“I showed people during the pandemic I was willing to make the hard decisions, even if it cost me,” Beshear said. “I put politics out the window, and I made the best decisions I could to save as many lives as possible.”
Cameron countered that the governor infringed on constitutional rights with his restrictions.
“This governor, because of pride, won’t tell you that he has regrets,” Cameron said.
As the state’s attorney general, Cameron successfully led court fights against the governor’s pandemic actions, which essentially halted the COVID-era restrictions. Cameron said the governor’s policies amounted to executive overreach. Beshear said his actions saved lives and that he leaned heavily on guidance from former Republican President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force.
Cameron said Monday night that the restrictions hurt small businesses, many of which haven’t yet recovered. School closures led to widespread learning loss among students, he said.
Beshear responded that he made vaccinations a priority for teachers to get schools reopened. Sending teachers back to classrooms before having access to the vaccine would have put them at risk, he said.
“It was real,” Beshear said of the pandemic. “And acting like we shouldn’t have taken those steps is a slap in the face at all those health care workers that marched into the COVID wings when they didn’t have enough PPE, knowing they could take it home to their families.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
