Martha Layne Collins, former governor of Kentucky who took critical steps toward comprehensive education reforms, has died at 88.
“Governor Martha Layne Collins was a visionary leader whose steadfast commitment to education transformed opportunities for generations of Kentuckians,” said Brigitte Blom, Prichard Committee president and CEO. “Her courage, grace and determination continue to inspire all of us who believe in the power of education to move our Commonwealth forward.”
Collins worked extensively throughout her term to build legislative interest and support for wide-ranging education reforms. A tough 1984 legislative session produced mandatory kindergarten, required testing and internships for teachers, and instituted academic takeovers for failing schools.
Collins created a Governor’s Council on Educational Reform in the wake of the session, calling for a report by July 1985. Her term coincided with the rise of the Prichard Committee, which had organized as an independent nonprofit group in 1983. The Prichard Committee showed its education ambitions in 1984, coordinating a statewide convening of 145 town forums on a single November evening, collecting citizen input on public school needs and goals.
In early 1985, Collins appointed herself secretary of the state Education and Humanities Cabinet and enlisted legislators to join her in visiting every county in the state to discuss education issues. An ambitious education reform bill was unveiled in the summer of 1985, led by 5% teacher raises, reduced class sizes, construction funding and efforts to equalize base funding to property-poor school districts. She called a special session in July where the plan was approved along with an increase in corporate taxes.
“This nation’s economy is in transition. It is an economy increasingly built on technology and the human mind rather than strong backs and willing hands,” Collins said at the time. “Education is the key to this new economy. Education is Kentucky’s challenge.”
Collins used the 1986 session to boost higher education funding and pass a pilot preschool program.
In the education-focused atmosphere, a lawsuit challenging the state’s system of school finance was filed in 1985. It subsequently led to a landmark 1989 decision by the state Supreme Court that prompted the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which overhauled the state’s entire K-12 school system.
Collins was a longstanding member of the Prichard Committee.
“When I became governor, you have lots of priorities, but when I’d sit down and think about it, education always came back as the first thing you have to start with,” she explained in a 1992 interview with the Nunn Center for Oral History at UK. “It’s the key — that’s one thing no one can take away from you. That’s what you have to have in order have people work, to get revenues, to provide libraries and roads and everything. It all comes back to education. I feel like I made an impact in education and bringing in new jobs; I hope we made the people of Kentucky feel good about themselves.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.