Knox County Versus Corbin Independent Schools fight continues

– Lawyers swap arguments

– Kentucky Commissioner of Education urges mediation

As the deadline closes for Saturday’s rally to support school choice in the Knox/Corbin area, the lawyers for the two sides are swapping arguments with the Kentucky Department of Education.

The lawyer for Knox County is mostly complaining about all the money his district loses. Somehow, that lawyer thinks that more money automatically will equate to better educations. There is a ton of research, including some of our own in our Bang for the Buck report, that proves otherwise. Knox’s lawyer better try another tack.

The lawyer for Corbin takes the high ground, talking about the much better education kids get in Corbin while offering a rebuttal to the idea that somehow the kids magically bring better educations with them when they switch school systems. The Corbin lawyer cites evidence that shows it’s the Corbin schools – not something innate in the kids – that provides those better educations.

Certainly, there is no doubt that kids in Corbin run educational rings around the Knox County kids.

For example, consider the ACT, Incorporated’s high school readiness test called EXPLORE, which is given to all public school eighth graders in Kentucky.

Out of over 300 schools that get EXPORE scores in Kentucky in last year’s school term, Corbin’s middle school ranks 36th. In very sharp contrast, Knox County’s two schools rank near the bottom of the stack.