Carney is one of 19 high-ranking state leaders from across the country who completed the program and joined the ranks of Fellow Alumni that includes four sitting governors, a U.S. Senator and numerous state leaders who have announced campaigns for higher office.
The bipartisan group engaged in conversations surrounding quality child care and the early childhood workforce, teacher preparation and evaluation reform, the value of strong school leadership, and higher education access, affordability and completion.
“Education is not, and should not be a partisan issue. Improving our education system from early childhood to postsecondary is critical to preparing our young people for the modern economy,” Carney said. “With many challenges facing our education system, I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to engage with leaders from across the nation, and to play a role in developing solutions that will help move Kentucky’s educational achievement forward.”
Carney, a lifelong educator who currently serves as Majority Leader in the Kentucky House of Representatives, is a past chairman of the House Education Committee and has served in multiple education-based organizations. He also served as co-chair of the School Safety Working Group alongside Senator Max Wise, which laid the groundwork for passage of Kentucky’s comprehensive school safety measure in 2019, SB 1.
“We’re thrilled to bring this high-achieving group of state leaders together again to further build their capacity on the most pressing issues in education,” said The Hunt Institute President & CEO Dr. Javaid Siddiqi. “During the program, our Fellows are exposed to a variety of policy levers and program exemplars so that they can lead critical conversations in their states and ultimately drive change that improves educational outcomes for all students.”
Since its launch in 2014, the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program has established a network of 90 Fellows representing 48 states and Washington, D.C. Each session brings together some of the top education policy and research leaders, national experts, and current principals and teachers.