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Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear proposed awarding the largest pay raise in decades to Kentucky's public school personnel, upping the ante Wednesday in his competition with Republican challenger Daniel Cameron, who offered his own plan to boost salaries and overcome pandemic learning setbacks. The rivals in the November election outlined ideas for boosting K-12 education on back-to-back days, staking out positions on an overarching issue. Their gubernatorial showdown is one of the nation's most closely watched this year as the Democratic incumbent tries to win reelection in the red state. Beshear garnered strong support from teachers in winning the governorship in 2019, naming an educator as his running mate and vowing to make education his top priority. Cameron is trying to make inroads, having apologized for an ex-GOP governor's feud with educators and unveiling a plan to boost starting teacher pay and develop tutoring programs for students who fell behind during the pandemic. Beshear countered Wednesday with his own plan highlighted by an 11% pay raise for teachers and all school personnel, including bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria staff. It would amount to the single largest raise for Kentucky public school educators in at least 40 years, the governor said. “You can’t catch a kid up on math without a math teacher, and we cannot remain competitive with other states if we don’t pay teachers closer to what they’re worth,” the governor said at a news conference. The governor said his plan would fully fund student transportation. He said that funding, along with the pay raise, would help avoid problems like what occurred in Louisville's district, where schools closed for more than a week after a redesign of bus routes resulted in long delays on the first day of classes. Beshear's plan was in the works long before Cameron unveiled his proposals Tuesday, the governor's office said. Kentucky ranks 44th nationally in average teacher starting pay and 40th in average teacher pay, Beshear said, citing statistics from the National Education Association. An 11% raise — a $1.1 billion expense over two years — would vault Kentucky to the middle of the pack. With a record budget surplus and strong economy, the governor's proposals are affordable with “plenty of space” to meet other demands, State Budget Director John Hicks said. On Tuesday, Cameron proposed setting the statewide base starting pay for new teachers at $41,500. That would have a ripple effect by lifting pay for other teachers, he said. “What our plan entails is making sure that we get every county in our commonwealth up to that number, so we can ensure that our teachers are in a position to take care of themselves and be confident in the classroom as they work with our students,” Cameron said. Beshear said the average teacher starting salary in Kentucky is $38,010, based on NEA statistics. He said his proposal would raise that to $42,191. The governor pledged to continue pushing for state-funded pre-K for all 4-year-olds if he wins a second term. The proposal made no headway previously in the Republican-dominated legislature. Beshear said his plan includes fully funding teachers’ pensions and medical benefits to ensure there's no increase in health insurance premiums for school employees. A key part of Cameron's plan would develop an optional, 16-week tutoring program for math and reading instruction. Students falling behind grade level would get first priority, he said. The proposal mirrors initiatives already started by some school districts. It's a response to statewide test scores last fall that showed fewer than half of students were reading at grade level. Lower across-the-board scores were posted in math, science and social studies. National test scores showed it’s a problem across the U.S. as schools try to recover from the pandemic. Cameron blames Beshear for learning setbacks during the pandemic, when schools shifted to virtual learning, saying it put many students at risk of losing “their God-given potential.” The governor supported school closures during the height of the pandemic to protect people from the virus. He prioritized vaccinating teachers to get schools reopened and says his policies reflected recommendations from then-President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force. Kentucky lawmakers have generally followed their own course in setting education policies. The two-year budget passed last year funded full-day kindergarten and poured money into teacher pensions and infrastructure. They increased the state’s main funding formula for K-12 schools, but the amount was considerably less than what Beshear proposed. The governor chided lawmakers Wednesday for “shorting” districts in allocations for school transportation. “If you want to solve transportation issues, then we need to pay bus drivers enough,” Beshear said. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Kentucky governor's efforts to help storm-ravaged towns may dilute GOP advantage in rural areas Kentucky candidates trade barbs at Fancy Farm picnic, the state's premier political event McConnell is warmly embraced by Kentucky Republicans amid questions about his health

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Roller coasters are synonymous with a fun and exhilarating time at a theme park - but one artist has designed an "Euthanasia Coaster" that is specifically intended to kill its passengers. Julijonas Urbonasis is the man behind the 2010 project which has been described as a thought experiment or conceptual art. The "hypothetic death machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely – with elegance and euphoria – take the life of a human being," according to his website. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How it works is that the sheer speed of the roller coaster along with number of loops would result in "oxygen deficiency in the brain," which would ultimately kill those who are on board the ride. So it appears, there's no chance of surviving the ride if you're on it. @criminologyandcoffee Would you ride the Euthanasia Coaster? #euthanasiacoaster #julijonasurbonas #rollercoaster However, there may be a way, according to Urbonas - with the Lithuanian artist explaining that it requires sporting some anti-gravity gear. "A possible usage is the 'hacked' thrill ride, which was suggested to me by an aeronautic engineer who happened to visit the coaster's scale model during an exhibition," he told LadBible back in 2021. "She said, 'Your machine could be hacked, you know.' "After my confusion, she explained, 'Using anti-g trousers that prevent pilots from blackout and fainting, I believe I would survive the ride and turn it into the most extreme thrill ride.'" While a scale model of the ride was built, according to Snopes but building the roller coaster in real life is not the aim for Urbonas - instead, the purpose of the design is "to convince the public that it can be built." "I have quite the list of people who would like to be scientific objects if the project would advance towards realisation. Most of them are elderly from the US. But I don’t want to go this far," Urbonas said in a 2018 interview with Arterritory Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.