The Knox County Public School System remains locked in a battle for control of students with the Corbin Independent School District and the parents from Knox County who much prefer to send their children to the Corbin schools. The graphs below provide simple evidence why parents in Knox County want choice and will undoubtedly fight hard to maintain it.
The first graph compares scores for the EXPLORE test from ACT for the two schools in Knox County that have an eighth grade and the middle school in the Corbin Independent School District. Because this is only a 25 point maximum test, the difference between Corbin Middle School and the two schools in the Knox County School District are very notable.
The next graph shows a similar comparison for the ACT Composite score in the high schools in the two school districts. As you can see, once again Corbin Independent does a much better job of getting students ready for postsecondary education. 
Though none of the scores shown here are good enough compared to the ACT scores that indicate good college preparation, it is clear that Corbin schools are doing a much better job than Knox County Schools when it comes to educating their students.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Why would parents prefer Corbin schools over Knox County schools – Part 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
One of the perennial complaints about the public school system in the United States is that it functions as a monopoly mandated by the government. Such a monopoly stifles competition and limits parental choice. However, a monopoly is good for the supplier because it allows the supplier to charge more for less since the consumer has no better choice.
Nowhere in Kentucky is this complaint more valid than in Knox County where parents who have previously sent their children to one of the top rated school systems in the state (Corbin Independent Schools) are now being pressured by the Knox County BOE (Board of Education) to send their children to one of the lowest rated school systems in the state (Knox County Schools). The Knox County BOE seeks to justify its decision to discontinue the long standing reciprocal attendance agreement with the Corbin Independent School System by pointing out that with such an agreement in place a large amount of government money is redirected each year to the Corbin Independent School System instead of going to the Knox County School System. The Knox County BOE is conveniently silent about the fact that a similarly large amount of government money is redirected each year from the Knox County School System to the Barbourville City School System because of their reciprocal attendance agreement with that school system.
The real problem seems to be a denial on the part of the Knox BOE regarding dwindling attendance in their system. Dwindling attendance is not the “cause” of Knox County School System problems. Dwindling attendance is the “effect” of Knox County School System problems. When Knox County BOE chairman Sam Watts says, “I feel that the board done [sic] what they thought was best for Knox County School System” he is certainly speaking the truth. It seems that the Knox County BOE is suffering from a conflict of interest. The question regarding the reciprocal attendance agreement with Corbin Schools pits what is best for “the system” against what is best for “the students”. Concern for “the system” and the related concern for keeping teachers employed in “the system” represents a dangerous conflict of interest for all concerns.
Ironically, the decision to discontinue the reciprocal attendance agreement with Corbin is ill fated. If the Knox County School System ever flourishes it will not be because their BOE coerced unwilling parents into having their children attend Knox County Schools. Free Americans do not take well to coercion, especially when it comes to decisions affecting the livelihood of their families.
(Published anonymously for fear of reprisal.)
Anonymous 29 Jan at 9:19 PM
Thank you for your informed commentary on this issue.
I invite you to ask others directly involved in this fight to also contribute to this important discussion in the Bluegrass Policy Blog. Our readers need to hear your voices about this attempt to further reduce the already very limited school choice options in Kentucky.
The situation in Knox County exemplifies the reason why the regular public schools in this state fight school choice. With choice, schools must improve or face real consequences like lost enrollment.
Without choice, schools that don't improve face no consequences while the cash just keeps coming, anyway.
Knox County had choices, too -- face up to the competiton and improve -- or play the monopoly game. Sadly, instead of improving, this district is playing games.
So far, this blog has compared NCLB results based on Kentucky Core Content Test scores, ACT results, and EXPLORE results for Knox County high schools and Corbin's high school.
Except, there isn't a comparison.
Corbin significantly outperforms the two schools in Knox County.
Under these conditions, forcing kids back to the Knox system clearly will reward bad performance and damage educations.
It will be interesting to see how this works out during the appeal to the Kentucky Department of Education. I'm not sure that the law will be on the side of Corbin schools, unfortunately. Certainly, a past precedent with Jackson Independent Schools isn't encouraging.
But, given the evidence of significantly different performance, if the decision goes against Corbin, state leaders will just indict the Kentucky's school system while providing more evidence that the school system really doesn't consider the best interests of children first and cares most about serving special interests of certain adults.
Post a Comment