These people are in charge of educating your children?

Sometimes I have to scratch my head at the supposed intelligence of those we entrust to the education of our children.

For reasons known only to them, the vast majority of educators are liberals. Kentucky is no exception. For the most part, they'd vote for a Democrat even if the venerable Dr. Thomas Boysen -- the first education commissioner hired after Kentucky passed its education reform act in 1990 -- was running as a Republican.

But even then, teachers resist most efforts to substantially change education by their own ideological and political fellow travelers. They seem to prefer the status quo and loudly oppose ideas to implement new ideas. When Democrat Martha Layne Collins, herself a former classroom teacher, suggested a number of reforms in the 1980s, she was roundly criticized by the Kentucky Education Association. I personally sat in a room in Lexington when Collins addressed the KEA and saw and heard the chilly reception she got.

Forget for a moment, though, the political leanings of what I call the "educracy" (the educational bureaucracy). Sometimes the words and actions of the teachers' union defy all logic.

This week, the KEA is all upset because a private citizen sent an email critical of their chosen gubernatorial candidate, Andy Beshear, to some school employees' work email address. They're demanding an investigation and calling this an illegal act.

If this demonstration of a lack of common sense is reflective of the intelligence level of those whom teachers choose to lead their statewide organization, I'm thinking we might be better off letting eighth-grade dropouts educate our children.

The last time I checked, there is nothing illegal about a private citizen sending an email to someone at their work address, as long as there's nothing nefarious about the act. If Albert Wells, the person who sent the email, had distributed a virus, or sent a huge file attachment intended to overload the server, then he would have committed a crime. But simply sending information critical of Andy Beshear and his former governor father isn't a crime. In fact, it's -- dare I say it -- educational.

To his credit, Kentucky Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis is having none of the KEA's nonsense. He correctly notes that citizens are legally permitted to email public employees, especially those with publicly available email addresses.

There are legal prohibitions against public employees sending political information via their work email accounts, but none against such information being sent to them. Why does the KEA fear having their members exposed to alternative views, and facts that might correct the misinformation the organization has been spreading about the gubernatorial candidates?