Ky. official advocates for state’s students
Jacqueline Coleman made it a mission early in her career to ensure her social studies students understood how government worked. In her second term as Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, she’s still educating, but her audience has shifted.
At the Kentucky Capitol, she pushes to elevate students’ voices and needs so that lawmakers understand what’s best for children across the commonwealth.
In her first term, she was the driving force behind waiving the GED fee. The cost was often a barrier to people who needed to take that test to expand job prospects. She also pushed for a student-led mental health initiative, which has garnered $40 million-plus in federal funding for Kentucky-based schools. That covers about half the counties in Kentucky, she said, and her work isn’t done until every Kentucky child has those resources in their school.
Her work helping children and families has earned her recognition as Kentucky’s USA TODAY Woman of the Year.
Coleman she says she became an accidental advocate because she saw firsthand how much her school needed and how many students were missing opportunities because of a lack of funding.
But it wasn’t until the uproar in the statehouse in 2018 when legislation threatened teachers’ pensions that Coleman really dove in. She knew the attorney general at the time – now Gov. Andy Beshear – could stop the legislature from taking their pensions. Her conversations with Beshear eventually led Coleman to be his running mate in the 2019 election.
Because education has been her life’s work, she approaches every issue that comes to her office through that lens. Whether it’s health care, juvenile justice or workforce development, there are often ways to break problematic cycles through the education system.
Coleman brings the same attitude to politics that she did playing basketball for Centre College and later coaching a high school basketball team to five consecutive record-breaking seasons.
Through basketball, she learned to drown out any noise. Being on the court meant staying focused, figuring what needed to be done and doing the right thing, while also understanding tough truths and taking hard advice.
When Coleman was in the classroom, she had about 100 students per year she could impact. From the statehouse, the scope is so much bigger. She feels responsible for every Kentucky student. This interview has been edited for context and clarity.
Question: Who paved the way for you?
Answer: So many people, but my first thought is Martha Layne Collins, the first female governor in Kentucky. There were four women who served in lieutenant governor’s office before me. I think about the women in the legislature who ran for office when it wasn’t common for women to be in office.
What is your proudest moment?
I think my proudest moment would be when Emma, who is my adopted daughter, signed a Division I basketball scholarship. She played basketball for me (as a coach). She didn’t have a great home life and so she moved in with us. She couldn’t read in high school. Basketball was the vehicle that was our connection, but helping her to understand that she could only play if she got the grades was a pretty big challenge. But it worked. So not only was she the first person in her biological family to graduate high school, now she’s the only one that’s graduated from college. Now she is an RN, and I could not be more proud of the life that she has made for herself.
What advice would you give to your younger self ?
I think I would tell myself that “I belong.” So often I think women suffer from imposter syndrome, and you think that maybe you shouldn’t speak up, or maybe you shouldn’t be in the room or at the table. And I would tell my younger self, “You absolutely belong there. That’s where you need to be.”