By ELAINE WILSON-REDDY

Contributing columnist

Our illustrious governor has done it again. He opened his mouth when he should have kept it closed. Does he have communications advisors? If he does, he needs to fire them. Or maybe he takes a page from his master, Donald Trump, who wouldn’t take good advice even if it made him money.

Bevin is notorious for hating on public education in Kentucky. He has called teachers thugs and stated that he wants to break the back of the teacher pension fund. Nice.

His latest moronic comments came Tuesday after someone told him schools would be out Wednesday because of the extreme cold weather. He glibly stated that we are sending a message to our students that it’s okay to stay home when it’s cold.

“… we’re sending messages to our young people that if life is hard you can curl up in the fetal position — somewhere in a warm place — and wait till it stops being hard, and that just isn’t reality, it just isn’t.”

What is wrong with this dude? When was the last time he had to wait for a bus on a frigid cold dark morning, or walk home from school when the wind chill was sub-zero? He certainly wasn’t worried about his children, since they are all home-schooled.

His comments got him a lot of play in the national press. I did a quick internet search to find his exact quote. There is a story in the Washington Post about Bevin’s remarks. A local CBS affiliate in San Francisco did a spot on his foot-in-mouth comments. The always affable NBC weatherman, Al Roker, lost his mind Wednesday morning, calling Bevin the “nit wit governor of Kentucky.” Roker was practically seething by the end of his rant saying, “These are our children. I’m glad you’re not a teacher.”

Our statewide speaker of all things logical, Matt Jones, called Bevin rude and a jerk. Jones’ co-host, Mary Jo Perino pointed out that many Kentucky students don’t have proper attire for this kind of cold. Jones stated that in Bell County, where he grew up, students could have to wait for the bus for up to twenty minutes. Hypothermia and frostbite are real dangers for children who don’t have coats, gloves, and other extreme cold weather gear. I guess Bevin is okay with this.

I can’t imagine what happened to Bevin to make him make such outrageous statements. His arrogant condescension is frustrating, exhausting and unbecoming of an official whose job is to represent all of the citizens of this state. He clearly has no respect for our teachers or our public schools, which in turn implies his disrespect for the products of our schools.

Bevin needs to take his carpetbagger-self back to New Hampshire to run his bell business and leave Kentucky alone. We have had enough of his nastiness.

Go home, Bevin, and take your vortex with you.

G. Elaine Wilson Reddy, JD, is a professional educator, consultant and advocate. She lives in Danville.