More Infinite Heartaches

– Kentucky’s statewide student data system continues to cause problems

I’ve mentioned the problems before, and now the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Infinite Campus student tracking system continues to have severe teething pains, this time in Boyd County.

This multi-million dollar effort was supposed to make it easier for parents to access their children’s grades and other information. So far, at least in Boyd County, the opposite has happened.

Also, beware KDE spokeswoman Lisa Gross’ comment in the news article that the costs of Infinite Campus are lower than the older program, which never worked right, either. In the Kentucky Board of Education meeting last week it was admitted that there is a higher workload to manage this data-hungry digital monster. Districts are having to hire extra data programmers to cope. Those extra costs might not appear in the KDE’s budget, as the districts have to come up with the money, but the taxpayer ultimately will get a larger bill, maybe with increased local taxes.