Kentucky Education Commissioner speaks out about what to do about failing schools

The last two days of meetings at the Kentucky Board of Education have been a real breath of fresh air, and ideas.

Some of the most important comments may have come from Dr. Terry Holliday, the new commissioner of education. He talked about having to really reach out for new ideas to combat the chronic failure of some of our schools.

Check out this illustrated audio recording from the October 8, 2009 meeting where Dr. Holliday is open to going where Kentucky has not gone before – to things like charter schools, KIPP academies (the Knowledge Is Power Program schools which have done a superb job with poor and minority kids in inner cities) and controlling excesses in some school Site Base Councils (the School Decision Making Councils, or SBDM).

I think the board is really starting to “get it.” More on that later.