Kentucky Legislative Session: Essential Skills Legislation

​House Majority Leader Jonathan Shell is championing "essential skills" legislation again this session. Filed last week, House Bill 3 is expected to receive a hearing in the House Education Committee on Tuesday. Leader Shell has been a strong proponent of legislation to encourage K-12 schools to make essential skills curriculum a priority. Th goal is to help address a skills gap concern of many employers; finding workers with necessary "soft" skills to be successful in the workplace. The bill identifies and defines essential skills, gives schools credit who are already addressing this skills gap, allows schools the flexibility to use their own program or resources provided by the Kentucky Deptartment of Education, and brings education and business together to provide best practices and resources to schools who want assistance in essential skills programming.  It also creates a Kentucky Work Ethic Certificate that will be used to help deem students transition ready.