Much of the discussion about public charter schools involves the impact these schools have on urban areas. And there are some great success stories, including those involving Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) academies in some of the most challenging inner-city areas in America.
However, as the putkidsfirstky.org Web site notes, "In Kentucky, many rural areas are more impoverished than our urban areas and, unfortunately, are experiencing crime rates."
According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, around 20 percent of the nation's more than 5,000 (and growing) public charters are located either in rural areas (696 charter schools) or small towns (387 charters).
The evidence suggests that charter schools would provide a viable option both for parents being harassed by educrats in both Kentucky's big cities and rural areas.
Charter schools could re-empower parents in both Louisville's West End and Knox County's rural areas the ability to emancipate their children from miserably failing school districts.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Charter schools work in rural areas, too
New PLAN test results show white black gaps widening in Kentucky
New scores from the ACT, Incorporated’s EXPLORE and PLAN tests are out. The Herald-Leader covered some of the general stuff, already, though the paper may be making too much of an apples to oranges comparison by stacking up our 2009-10 scores to outdated national average scores posted half a decade ago.
The good news overall is that we are seeing a small amount of progress, which is exactly what Senate Bill 130 from 2006 intended as the EXPLORE and PLAN tests are aimied at getting our kids better prepared for college. Still, there is a long way to go, and there is at least one troubling area the newspaper didn't cover.
That problem area is the unfortunate growth in performance gaps between Kentucky’s white and black students on the PLAN tests.
As you can see in the graph, the white minus black PLAN score gaps grew between the 2006-07 and 2009-10 school years for every area except reading. While the growth of the gaps has been small, growth isn’t what we want.
Another interesting thing in the graph above is that the science gaps are much smaller than gaps in the other subjects. Could this be an indication that even Kentucky whites under-perform in this area? Do our blacks engage better with science courses?
More research is clearly needed on that, because there could be a clue here that will help with the other subjects, as well. Certainly, with the gaps large and growing larger, such help is badly needed.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Bluegrass Institute stands with Knox Co. parents
(CORBIN, Ky.) – Supporters of public school choice hope a planned rally for Saturday at Grace on the Hill Church at 2 p.m. (eastern) will send a clear message to Knox County officials, who recently ended a longstanding reciprocal agreement with the Corbin Independent Schools.
Click here to read the entire news release.
Knox County Versus Corbin Independent Schools fight – Knox making an inaccurate claim
The latest in the growing story of Knox County Public Schools killing parent choice with the Corbin Independent Schools involves a Knox claim that Corbin turned down an application from a special needs student.
Not so, according to Jackie Frost, the child’s mother. Ms. Frost had the courage and honesty to go public with the story.
I’m not a lawyer, so I’ll just wonder if a material error like this could really hurt Knox’s case.
Quote of the day...
"In Washington, a man gets up to speak and doesn't say a thing, and the other men disagree with him for three hours."
Enough of the salesmen! We need public servants!
I was listening to local talk radio the other day and I heard something mentioned that struck me as odd.
There was a guest on the show who is running for public office to represent the people of Kentucky. The topic of conversation was the healthcare summit between Republicans, Democrats, and President Obama taking place that day. The host of the show asked his guest if he thought the Republicans were wise to attend the summit to which the reply was of course.
What was the guest's reasoning? It was an opportunity for the Republicans to sell their ideas on healthcare reform to the American public.
Normally I'm not too animated when listening to this kind of stuff, but...I started yelling in my car.
Why? What's wrong with that, you ask?
Here's the problem. I'm sure that a lot of folks think the healthcare summit really was a great opportunity for the Republicans to sell their ideas to America BUT our representatives shouldn't be selling the American public on anything! We don't elect representatives to sell policies to us rather we elect them to represent us!
We need a mindset shift away from our elected representatives being some holy, untouchable group of salesmen that tells the public what is good for them back to representing the will of the people. Remember, they are public servants! Servants! They serve the public!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Knox County Versus Corbin Independent Schools fight – Late Update
The graph I posted a few minutes ago is already out of date. The Kentucky Department of Education just released the 2009-2010 results for the ACT, Incorporated’s EXPLORE and PLAN tests.
I ranked the high schools in Knox and Corbin for the new PLAN data and added that to the data I ranked earlier for the 2008-09 year.
Here is how that came out.
Note to avoid confusion. The graph I posted earlier is for the eighth grade EXPLORE data, not PLAN data. I'll post that tomorrow.
As you can see, Corbin improved its ranking, while both high schools in the Knox County system lost more ground.
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. 
Quote of the day
I have four children, and I want them to grow up in a country that has a working First Amendment.
Think we could play this video at the healthcare summit?
Even though he is no longer with us, I think Milton Friedman should still be offered a seat at the healthcare summit going on in Washington D.C. right now. Maybe in his absence we can just play this video...
Have our representatives forgotten why they were elected? Richard Durbin did on NPR.
This morning on NPR, Steve Inskeep interviewed Senator Richard Durbin regarding the healthcare legislation currently before Congress. The conversation moved towards the potential use of the reconciliation strategy that would allow congressional democrats to pass healthcare legislation with a mere 51 votes in the Senate.
After some generalities were discussed, Inskeep asked a very direct question: Even knowing that the majority of Americans are opposed to this legislation, will you pass this using reconciliation?
His response: I hope it doesn't come to that.
Seriously? Inskeep, not satisfied with the answer, asked the question again. This time Durbin basically said that Americans may be scared of it now but the legislation will benefit them in the end.
Wow. Regardless of how you view healthcare reform, this is a problem. Is this the attitude we want our elected representatives to have? This is a problem that is true on every level of government and is particularly of interest in Kentucky right now as the 2010 General Assembly is under way. Take the time to learn about what is going on in Frankfort and contact your representative to tell them how you feel about legislation that is important to you.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Rhode Island school district follows through – fires every high school teacher!
– Central Falls wasn’t fooling
We reported a few days ago that the Central Falls School District’s superintendent was unable to get teachers to agree to an improvement plan and was planning to fire all the teachers in the district’s Central Falls High School.
Now, the Central Falls Board of Education has voted to do precisely that – firing every teacher in their dismally performing high school – apparently reading out every one of the school staff members’ names individually during the process to leave no doubt what so ever about the action.
Grad rates much higher in Milwaukee schools of choice
A new report shows students who took advantage of Milwaukee’s school voucher program had a high school graduation rate 12 points higher than the public schools in that city posted. That works out to be 18 percent better than the city school’s 65 percent grad rate.
The report says that over 3,000 more students would have graduated from public schools if they had matched the voucher students’ performance.
Aside from the obvious social benefits, the research indicates that higher rate could have generated an additional $21.2 million in personal income and $3.6 million in extra tax revenue if it had actually occurred.
Furthermore, while Milwaukee pays $6,442 per pupil for each voucher, that is less than half the $14,011 spent in the Milwaukee Public Schools.
Thus, “bang for the buck” from the voucher program is astronomical.
The sovereignty of the Commonwealth
The Constitution is quite clear: The federal government should have limited power over the states.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Another friend in the cause: Kentucky Freedom Digest
The Kentucky Freedom Digest is a publication that has been circulating in a small circle for a few months now. Recently the Digest launched a great new website. The site contains information, updates, an event calendar, links to liberty minded organizations, and many other tools for the true liberty movement in Kentucky.
This site is a great resource, stop on by and take a look!
Despite late payments from state, Indianapolis charter schools excel
The Indianapolis Business Journal reports that charter school students in the city increased test scores by nearly 7 points last year on Indiana's standardized test, called Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus. In contrast, students in regular public elementary schools in Marion County only improved by 1.5 points and the county’s high school students actually had a slight score decline.
The news report also expresses concerns about the fiscal condition of the charter schools, which, ironically, is largely due to tardy payments from the Indiana state government.
Meanwhile, don’t expect such good news in Kentucky. We don’t even allow charter schools.
Cautionary notes on those education standards we just adopted
Before getting into this, I want to make it clear that I am keeping an open mind on the new ‘Common Core’ education standards that Kentucky just adopted – especially because so far we’ve only seen drafts. More work is still expected before the final version releases, perhaps in April.
But, I can’t help noting that others are neither so cautious, nor confident. Heat is starting to come from a fairly broad spectrum of viewpoints.
Today, Education Week reports (subscription?) that two critical reports have just been issued on the Common Core standards.
One study comes from the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Massachusetts and the Pacific Research Institute. It is written by Ze’ev Wurman, who helped write California’s math standards, and by Sandra Stotsky, who helped with the very excellent and highly regarded education standards in Massachusetts. Both authors spent a lot of time in the trenches of the standards issue. Their comments should not be idly dismissed even though those comments are obviously based on a recent draft of the Common Core Standards rather than the final, still to be delivered, version.
The second report comes from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Texas is one of the two states that refused to join the Common Core initiative. Some of the findings in the news release from the TEA say the Common Core Standards don’t include the following, which are in the Texas standards now:
• Analyze works of literature for what they suggest about the historical period and cultural context in which they were written;
• Use effective reading strategies to determine a written work’s purpose and intended audience;
• Identify and analyze the audience, purpose, and message of an informative or persuasive text;
• Geometric reasoning that makes connections between geometry, statistics and probabilities;
• Connecting mathematics to the study of other disciplines by using appropriate mathematical models in the natural, physical and social sciences.
The National School Boards Association also has chimed in, raising questions about what it sees as excessive federal pressure to adopt Common Core or something similar. Is Kentucky selling its rights as a state to the feds?
Again, I retain an open mind on the Common Core Standards, and I am hopeful they will be a good improvement on Kentucky’s past, very disjointed and overly broad education policy. Certainly, some very credible groups like the College Board and ACT, Incorporated have been involved.
But, we also need to keep our eyes open. Rushing into these particular standards before they are even finalized may not be a wise move.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Was Big Brother watching our kids – in McCracken County Schools?
We’ve commented already on the big scandal in Pennsylvania where a school district allegedly used special software in loaner computers to spy on students at home.
The software in question allowed remote access of the laptops’ webcams, and, perhaps, internal microphones, as well.
Now, it turns out the same sort of software was loaded in over 2,000 computers issued to students in McCracken County schools (subscription).
Paducah Sun reporter Bill Bartleman reports that the school district is removing the software, but even that process raises questions. The district is doing that by remote control, as well. Clearly, if the district can remove the software on its own – remotely – then it probably can install something else remotely, on its own, as well.
The existence of such software places tremendous responsibilities – and temptations – on the IT department in a school district. How would anyone know if a rogue IT person decided to do a little recreational snooping, say maybe on the laptop of the school prom queen?
For that matter, with schools loaning computers to teachers, it might be that cute young teacher just out of college who is getting some unwanted attention, too.
Or, if school loaners went to local board members, maybe they have been getting a little unauthorized monitoring just to see how they plan to vote on some pending issue.
In any event, the ‘snoopware’ issue in Pennsylvania may be a problem elsewhere – like right here in Kentucky.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what, if any, laws were violated and how this all plays out in general.
School Days DAZE!
I really don’t get this.
Today, WFPL Radio reports that Speaker of the Kentucky House Greg Stumbo again stated – as he did a few days ago – that we can cut two days from the Kentucky public school year without any real problems.
The VERY SAME DAY, the House Education Committee votes out House Bill 154, which will create a pilot program in something like 20 or 30 schools which will ADD 300 hours to the school year – somewhere around 50 more days!
So, at the very same time the House leader says we can cut school days, the education committee under his jurisdiction says we need to add more – a lot more – at least in a number of schools.
I don’t see how we can afford HB 154, not even as a pilot. We certainly could never scale this up to cover every school in the state.
Furthermore, the idea that some public school students would get such an enormous disparity in education time probably runs headlong into legal issues with the equal rights provisions of the US Constitution and similar state-level statutes.
I should point out something else. One of the criticisms we hear against charter schools is the claim that the methods they use can’t be scaled to regular public schools. Well, double ditto for adding 50 extra school days to every school in Kentucky. That’s just not going to happen. So, what’s the point of a pilot that can’t be turned into a system-wide program?
By the way, charter schools can do, and are doing, a lot of what I heard discussed in the committee meeting a lot cheaper.
And, we could probably start far more charter schools over time than we could ever add to a 300-hour pie in the sky pilot program.
Lexington mayoral debate to be online
The upcoming mayoral election debate will be available via several online networking sites Wednesday (2/24) at 6pm. The debate will be between current mayor Jim Newberry, current vice-mayor Jim Gray, former mayor Teresa Issac and Skip Horine.
What are your thoughts on government transparency?
During his campaign and his tenure thus far, President Obama has touted the importance of government transparency. In fact, the president has stated many times that he would put budgets, bills, earmarks, etc... online for days, sometimes even weeks, to allow citizens an advanced look at what their government is doing.
I am 100% behind this idea of transparency in government. The more transparency the better. Transparency is the first step toward accountability.
I am wondering though, how many citizens are satisfied with the level of transparency currently in existence. I am willing to bet that in Kentucky citizens would like to see more transparency given the introduction of new legislation to make government spending available online.
Transparency is important. How do you feel your government is performing with regards to transparency? What would you like to see? Have the promises for transparency been held up to your satisfaction? Let us know what you think about it!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Not getting it about states’ rights
In this video from last Saturday’s Restore America rally in Frankfort, Kentucky State Representative Stan Lee lays out how many just don’t get it about states’ rights.
It’s rally for public school choice time in Knox County
The Times Tribune has a nice report on the latest developments in the Knox County Public Schools/Corbin Independent Schools battle over student transfer rights between the two school systems.
Key items:
An appeal to Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday is in the works.
If that appeal fails, parents are planning legal action based on some interesting issues such as the guarantee of a free, appropriate and “efficient education” found in federal and state statutes.
The case concerning the lack of efficiency in Knox County schools looks strong. We blogged earlier about how the taxpayer spends far more in Knox County schools for a much lower graduation rate and a lower level of educational performance than the Corbin Independent schools provide.
Anyway, it looks like school choice proponents are heading to the Grace on the Hill Church in Knox County this coming Saturday, February 27, 2010. You might want to be there, too.
'Mr. Governor: Tear down this warming-alarmist operation'
Judging from Kentucky’s snowy winter, it appears Punxsutawney Phil does a much better job of climate prediction than the environmental wackos intent on threatening our lifestyle and destroying the commonwealth’s economy.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Will cutting school days hurt education?
– Thanks to Kentucky's lousy education data system, who knows?
"There is absolutely no evidence at all that adding these two days had any impact on the learning process."
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, as quoted in the Lexington Herald Leader
Some of the education blogs are in an uproar over House Speaker Greg Stumbo’s recent comments that we could cut two days out of Kentucky’s school year without any damage. The education outrage is reinforced by the fact that Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, apparently agrees with Stumbo.
But, is this counter-intuitive assertion really right?
The sad answer is, who knows? For years, Kentucky wasted its valuable time and money on an untrustworthy assessment program that never gave us accurate results on student and school performance. We finally shut that CATS assessment down last year, but it will be several more years before our new testing program is up and running.
Meanwhile, there really isn’t any data to prove how adding two more school days after 2006 really did work.
But, comments posted in other blogs point out that if the added days were just used for more CATS test prep – not for added days of real and effective instruction – then the politicians just might be right.
Again, since there was no scientific analysis of the impact of the school year change, and no credible data existed to support such an analysis, how can anyone really know?
This, readers, is why we push so hard at the Bluegrass Institute to get much better data on our school system. The present absence of such data is forcing our state’s leaders to make very important budget decisions virtually in the dark.
We don’t have the “bang for the buck” data our legislators need, and – after two decades of KERA – there simply is no excuse for not having that.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Governor launches procrastination tactic ... again
How many times can Governor Beshear go to the wish-and-hope well to avoid dictating cuts in state government?
First, he was going to do an efficiency study. It never happened. Good talk, no walk.
Then Beshear asked state employees for suggestions to cut costs. They responded with suggestions encompassing energy conservation, changes in practices that would reduce costs, reorganization, staffing, double-dipping, training, work hours, state vehicles and everything in between. When you read them, it begs the question: "Where’s management?"
Now the governor is going back to the employees again with the same request.
But just how many times will such public relations procrastination tactics work to avoid the really tough decisions he was elected to make as the state's top executive?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
What environmentalism is doing to Kentucky’s coal industry
Here are some sobering comments from today’s Restore America of Kentucky rally about how environmentalists from Washington are impacting Kentucky’s major energy industry.
Schools spying on kids – at home – using webcams!!??
– Could it be happening here?
This one sounded too outrageous to be true, so I did a lot of checking before posting. Sadly, it looks like the outrageous indeed has happened.
A lawsuit filed earlier this week alleges the Lower Merion School District in Ardmore, Pennsylvania issued some of its high school students laptop computers with webcams – and secretly embedded software that allows the school system to spy on kids anywhere the computers are connected to the Internet – even at home!
The story first broke in the several days ago blogs, but now, even the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Associated Press are running stories that are showing up across the country.
According to this incredible story, the lawsuit alleges a child was spied upon at home – and then disciplined by the school system for whatever they saw via the webcam!
The inevitable lawsuit was filed as a class action in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
More blog articles indicate other students have already joined this class action suit.
If the parents prevail, I’d bet the cost to the district will be considerable.
There also may be an FBI criminal investigation because federal wiretap laws may have been broken by the school district’s activities.
Anyway, why is this of interest in Kentucky?
We know school systems here, such as in Louisville, have provided loaner laptops to their students to take home.
We don’t know if those computers also contained similar “security” software (can you say “snoopware”) that would allow the districts to remotely access webcams or internal microphones. However, the suit developing in Pennsylvania, and the potential criminal investigation, certainly are raising a host of questions that we need to ask here in Kentucky.
In any event:
If you are a parent or student:
Be advised that the technology exists to surreptitiously and remotely activate a webcam (or a built-in or attached microphone) in a school loaner laptop without the user knowing this is happening.
Schools can, and have, used such software.
Schools apparently operated under the presumption that they didn’t need to tell parents and students about the existence of such software in the loaner computers and that such software was legal.
If you don’t have kids:
A computer virus can do the same thing, taking over your webcam without your knowledge.
So, why are all of you running to get the electrical tape to cover over your webcam? Did you think about how to block your computer’s microphone, as well (do you even know where that is)? Tape might not work for that job.
Now you know why the Bluegrass Institute is concerned about government transparency and excesses. If the schools in Pennsylvania had been open about what they were doing, maybe a lot of grief and invasion of privacy could have been avoided.
Friday, February 19, 2010
They're here - they're gone?
In an effort to save money, the legislature is talking about dropping the two days they added to the school year several years ago.
Then, adding those days was critical to improving education.
Now, we’re told those extra days don’t matter.
And, legislators wonder why the general public gets upset with them???
KFC's colonel, President Madison and the Beatles' Lennon got it right
In this edition of 'liberty lovers and losers,' see who's who as columnist Jim Waters details actions of 'educrats,' smoking nannies and politicians.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
Kentucky school test results could be late – again!
The H1N1 Swine Flu issue last fall and the unusually snowy winter (where is that global warming we hear so much about?) are becoming excuses for a call to delay spring testing with the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) – again.
We went through all of this last year.
Last year’s test results came back too late for parents to make informed decisions about No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school transfers and too late for schools to use the results to help rework curriculum.
Apparently, we have some slow learners in Frankfort, because nothing was done to fix last year’s problems.
So, here we go again.
Because the KCCT are used for NCLB compliance, Kentucky needs to request a waiver from Washington to delay KCCT testing and reporting.
But, this will be two years in a row for a waiver request.
What if Washington says no way, this time? After all, some think schools need to get test scores on time. Worse, failing to fix last year’s problem doesn’t look very smart.
There is another message here. Part of our problem is due to the fact that we still use left-over, CATS era testing ideas in the current KCCT. The KCCT rely too much on difficult and time consuming to score open response written questions. That’s no longer necessary because advances in testing now allow most of the things we look for with open response questions to be tested with faster-scoring multiple-choice approaches.
Hopefully, people working on our new assessment program will learn from the endemic problems caused by too many open-response questions in our testing program.
But, then I hoped we would have solved last year’s score delays, as well.
And, once again, it’s beginning to look like Kentucky is going to subvert another parent choice option to get their kids out of failing schools.
Kentucky legislature has bigger issues than a legislator pay cut
Thursday, February 18, 2010
More grandstanding in Congress at Toyota's expense
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said recently he would have supported issuing a subpoena to force Toyota President and CEO Akio Toyoda to appear before his panel.
What most news stories don't say is that Issa founded a company that manufactures vehicle anti-theft device. Somewhere in the past, he must have gotten the shaft by Toyota. Like his fellow union-loving buddies in Congress and the auto industry, who haven't been able to compete with nonunionized Toyota, all that pent-up frustration is spilling out.
So here we have -- some little guy on a big committee using his power to harass the grandson of the founder of one of the most successful companies in automotive history that employs thousands of Kentuckians at the Toyota plant in Georgetown -- the largest outside Japan.
And the incumbents -- of both parties -- wonder why 75 percent of Americans want to throw all of them out of office?
School accountability in Rhode Island
– Maybe with a message for Kentucky, too
In an action likely to garner lots of national attention, Frances Gallo, school superintendent of the Central Falls school system, is firing every one of the teachers at the Central Falls High School because the teachers’ union refused to accept a school reform plan for this, the worst performing high school in Rhode Island.
Apparently, the $3,400 salary increase that was offered to each teacher still wasn’t sweet enough to induce these teachers to do things that could improve a school where only seven percent of the students test proficient on state math assessments and the dropout rate is 52 percent.
There might be a message here for Kentucky’s Race to the Top plans, as well.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What Race to the Top really requires
Here is what the US Department of Education says our signing on to the Race to the Top (RTTT) fund contest actually entails – willingness of all participating local school districts to “change their practices.”
Race to the Top: Joanne Weiss & Running the Race from Education Week on Vimeo.
Did districts really understand this when they signed on to support our RTTT application?
How much and what are we really committed to change if we take the RTTT dollars?
Will the feds largely wind up running Kentucky’s public education system?
Budget crises: good for taxpayers, hard on politicians
A budget crisis is hard on politicians but good for taxpayers.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Bill will raise dropout age to 18
– But, how will we fund it?
– And, will it work?
The State Journal from Frankfort reports that a bill to raise the minimum high school dropout age in Kentucky cleared the House Education Committee yesterday.
House Bill 301 will eventually – in 2015 – raise the minimum high school dropout age to 18. The bill will start to impact students one year earlier when the current minimum dropout age of 16 will rise to 17.
But, will it work? And, can we afford it?
Lexington's Jim Gray makes a wise policy recommendation!
Recently the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Lexington Vice Mayor Jim Gray called for a halt to the plans to build a new government center for the city. His reasoning is that during these tough economic times, it is unwise to begin a construction project of that magnitude.
Then the paper reported him saying something that's music to my ears:
"...no business would initiate this kind of undertaking in today's economy"
Yes! That's right! Finally, an elected official makes a policy decision based on fiscally responsible ideas. The public sector must be as efficient (if not more) with the taxpayers' money than a private business is with its own resources.
We need more of this attitude!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Politicians on health care transparency: Put up or shut up!
Everyone talks about the 2,000-plus health care bills, but much of the talk is not factual.
For example, President Obama wants a half-day, nationally televised summit on health care, yet Kentucky small businesses would get hit with significant premium increases if they employ young people. Young people get big increases even if they don't want insurance.
If Congress and the President would clearly communicate, the good the bad and the ugly in their 2,000 plus pages of edicts – which they could do if they wanted to – Kentuckians could handle the facts and come to objective, reasonable conclusions.
Harry Reid could summarize all the edicts in the 2,000-plus page bill passed by the Senate. Nancy Pelosi could do the same for the House’s legislative beast.
Then, President Obama could put a green check mark next to each edict in each bill that he says is non-negotiable. And Republican leaders could put a red check mark next to each edict in each bill that is not acceptable.
Next, Reid and Pelosi could document all the special deals they cut to get their bills passed.
Finally the check-marked edicts and special deals would be posted on the Internet for all of citizens to see and analyze.
Then, a summit might be helpful, but only if President Obama and congressional participants LISTEN to consolidated, polled and documented feedback from “We the People” after looking at the details of the positions and posturing.
Politicians in Washington claim transparency is a priority– even on the health-care issue. It’s the politically correct thing to say, but it isn’t happening.
Transparency? Put up or shut up!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Deny school choice, feed government dependency
Syndicated columnist George Will takes on statists' strategy of implementing policies that make Americans more dependent on government in critical matters such as health care, bank bailouts and education.
In his column today, Will says -- as only he can -- that opposing school choice is part of this agenda:
Only two things are infinite -- the expanding universe and Democrats' hostility to the District of Columbia's school choice program. Killing this small program, which benefits 1,300 mostly poor and minority children, is odious and indicative. It is a small piece of something large -- the Democrats' dependency agenda, which aims to multiply the ways Americans are dependent on government.
(While there are many fiscally conservative Democrats in Kentucky, translate Will's comment to talk about those out-of-touch, big-government types in D.C. whose agenda it is to increase, not decrease, Americans' dependency on big government.)
Will excoriates opponents of choice, calling them "poodles" of teachers unions. They "oppose empowering poor children to escape dependency on even terrible government schools."
This isn't just going on in Washington. See a debate between school-choice supporters versus "unions and their poodles."
Unions' desperation showing
Don't be fooled by the spin. The so-called "Employee Free Choice Act" (a.k.a "card check") is not about protecting workers' rights to join a labor union. Few would try and deny employees this right.
Rather, this law -- as today's excellent Bowling Green Daily News editorial notes -- is about "how employees make that important choice."
The proposed legislation would change the voting process from one which uses secret ballots to certifying unions once they had collected a simple majority of signed authorization cards.
As the Daily News states: "Secret ballot elections are almost sacred in a democracy and have served this country well, not only in electing our public officials, but also in our lodges, clubs and churches."
This union scheme is outrageous, but understandable. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual report on Jan. 22, union membership on private payrolls fell from 7.6 percent to 7.2 percent in 2009.
With membership in the private sector dwindling, labor bosses are so desperate that they are willing to intimidate workers by removing their right to secret ballots so that neither unions nor employers know how they voted.
Integrity, full transparency needed NOW in health care reform discussions and process
Can the theatrics! Kill the spin! Stop the cameras! Enough of health care "reform!"
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said President Obama is willing to "add various elements" to health care legislation suggested by Republican lawmakers during an upcoming bipartisan meeting on the topic. But he won't change the entire plan and he is "absolutely not" hitting the reset button on the legislative process.
The 2,000-plus page "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" H.R. 3200 '' bill contained zingers: Government auditing of self-insured businesses, health care rationing, no choice in benefits, illegal immigrants covered, real-time access to Americans' personal finances; direct access to our bank accounts for elective funds transfer, subsidies for unions and community organizations like Acorn and on and on and on.
Talking heads will shift the debate to arguing whether these points are or are not included, or if they are valid points. The real focus must be on communication integrity and process transparency.
It's absolute negligence to throw any health care bill like this –- whatever its final number of pages or provisions -- before lawmakers for a vote without analysis, debate and total transparency on all its provisions.
Offering only 72 hours to examine this bill is a joke for legislation of this magnitude. The consequences of this government action are too consequential to politically ram down the throats of "We the People." The approach has been an absolute attack on the intent of our democracy, an assault on our freedoms and a blight on our political system.
Americans deserve better. Shine the light of transparency on the details and all the deals. "We the People" have the time. "We the People" can objectively judge if the detail is right and if this is sound public policy.
Kentucky is not on the list of states moving to enact language on States Freedom of Choice in Health Care initiatives. It should be, especially considering the Washington crowd has lost all integrity, credibility and trust on this issue.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
How’s that?
– Newspaper’s honest comments mirror what we’ve said for some time
Following the Common Core Standards adoption hoopla this week, the Frankfort Journal issued a remarkably frank editorial titled “Raising the Bar” (subscription) that laid out some of the past failings of KERA with a notable amount of candor.
The Journal admits that:
“Even after KERA, Kentucky high school graduates have been at a disadvantage when they progressed to higher education, in the commonwealth or elsewhere, and competed with scholars from states where more is demanded of graduates.”
and that:
“The Council on Postsecondary Education found that almost half of the students entering Kentucky’s colleges and universities required remedial instruction in at least one area.”
The editorial goes on to comment about double standards in one school district where students can graduate with very different levels of accomplishment.
The newspaper also mentions “deficiencies in KERA which left many young people ill-prepared for life after high school.”
Kind of sounds like us!
Spotlight shines brightly on leaders' response to $1.4 billion shortfall
Kentucky could be $1.4 billion short of the revenues needed to meet current spending levels without new revenues and/or deep spending cuts.
Gov. Steve Beshear submitted a budget proposal that relied on $780 million in revenues from expanded gambling.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams indicate chances of Beshear's political play to get an expanded gambling golden goose are slim.
Lawmakers effectively dismissed Beshear’s proposal and said they would craft a state budget “from scratch.”
Put this in perspective. The governor chewed up all the budget preparatory time in the timeline to submit a budget that won’t fly. He then punted to the Legislature.
Legislators are part time, not involved with the management of state government and have limited perspective of performance details that make up the numbers.
Wishing and hoping are not sound processes in putting together the state spending plan. Relying on more federal stimulus funding only delays the inevitable. John Garen, Ph.D., Gatton Endowed Professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky, provides a jump-start approach to solving the problem.
Time has come for tough decisions on what's best for the state. It's too easy and Kentucky politicians feel too comfortable ducking -- including in the form of procrastination -- the tough decisions. The spotlights are shining brightly on Kentucky’s $1.4 billion shortfall and its leaders' actions – not their rhetoric.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Kentucky leaders talk while other states act to address failing schools
Gov. Steve Beshear created The Transforming Education in Kentucky Task Force - a 33-member group of teachers, superintendents, legislators, business leaders, education advocates and others. Members were appointed in October 2009 but it was 3-1/2 months before the group’s first meeting – on Feb. 2, 2010!
Urgency is absent in the task force’s guidance – which doesn’t include achieving dramatic student achievement gains within a short time.
Unless something is drastically different, this task force will use up a lot of time, be accountable for nothing and watch from the sidelines as real action takes place elsewhere.
For example, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York are participating in a public-private partnership to create scalable and sustainable strategies for turning around clusters of their lowest-performing schools.
They are committing to reform failing schools by empowering people but also holding them accountable to achieve dramatic student achievement gains within two years.
The new "Zone schools remain inside the district, and are able to tap into the scale efficiencies of many central office services. However, Zone schools also give school level leaders the freedom to make staffing, scheduling, curriculum and related decisions, in return for being held accountable for dramatic student achievement gains within two years."
The Zone approach puts kids first and facilitates flexibility for real reform. People are signing up to be accountable for dramatic improvements with a sense that time is of the essence. Wow.
Kentucky education leaders could still just be talking about the same old things two years from now. Maybe Kentucky really doesn’t have leadership with the courage to make a difference in failing schools because of Kentucky’ very effective lobbying pressure and entrenched operational constraints.
Without change there is no change. Kentucky kids continue to lose as adults play their big people, self-serving power games.
'Reciprocal' re-run puts students on losing continuous loop
Thursday, February 11, 2010
School-based decision-making councils (SBDM): All power, little accountability, fewer results
SBDM councils: All the power, little accountability. Administrators: All the responsibility, insufficient authority.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullets.
Cell phones and driving! What do YOU think?
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the use of cell phones, particularly texting, while driving. Is is safe? Can we stop it? Where is the line? How much say does the government have?
In the 2010 General Assembly that is currently in session, there are several bills related to using personal communication devices when operating a vehicle. All of these bills restrict drivers' actions.
BIPPS columnist Jim Waters said House Bill 43, which bans texting while driving, is unenforceable and low on the list of legislative priorities. Western's public radio aired a two-part series on the issue, featuring interviews with lawmakers on both sides of the issue.
We want to know what you think! Share your thoughts on this issue in the comment section below.
- Should Kentucky's legislature being spending their time on this?
- Should we ban texting while driving?
- Should we ban talking on phones?
- Is the government overstepping it's boundaries and infringing citizen's rights OR
- Is the government looking out for it's citizen
What standards did we just adopt?
Yesterday, Kentucky’s education leaders tried to get a leg up on the Race to the Top (RTTT) federal education funding sweepstakes by jumping the gun on adopting the Common Core Standards.
Those education standards are being created by a 48-state consortium under the sponsorship of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
While I am hopeful that the final Common Core Standards will be a good step forward, the draft standards adopted yesterday are not ready for prime time and adopting the current draft may be counterproductive.
Locke High Charter School – a footnote
I put up a link to a video about the great turn around in the Locke High Charter School in Los Angeles yesterday.
I should have mentioned that this school is being run as a “Green Dot” school. Green Dot is a management organization similar to the KIPP Academy program. It is having great success in its charters in LA.
The reason I mention Green Dot is that when House Bill 176 was being discussed, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday offered Green Dot as an example of the type of school management system that might be set up in Kentucky if that bill were enacted. You may recall that HB 176 was enacted, but with the glaring omission of any charter school provision.
Well, I called the folks at Green Dot at that time to see if they would be interested in working in Kentucky without having charter school legislation. Just like the KIPP organization (who I also called) you can forget seeing Green Dot managed schools in our state so long as we refuse to create the flexible structure of charter schools that both KIPP and Green Dot require.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Quote of the day
"After the Obama Administration tried to put itself between me and my doctor with its health care plan, the White House - along with (New York) Governor David Paterson and (San Franciso) Mayor Gavin Newsom - now want to come between me and my can of soda." -- Deneen Borelli, of the Project 21 black leadership network, on an ever-increasing nanny state.
Bang for education's bucks
The Kentucky Department of Education claims that the billions spent on public schools is paying off. The data suggests taxpayers don't get nearly enough bang for the buck.
Click here to listen to the 90-second audio commentary.
Locke High Charter School – right stuff, not riots
Here’s another You Tube that shows what can happen in a really bad school when a state has really good charter school laws.
This story even got the attention of the US Department of Education.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Western's public radio tackles 'texting'-while-driving proposal
Western's Public Radio reporter Lisa Autry interviewed me for a two-part series on a legislative proposal to ban "texting" while driving. The series begins Tuesday at 5:50 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. (CST). We will be heard in Part 2 of the series on Wednesday at those same times.
Even liberal lawyers tell me this is a bad bill.
Here's my recent "Bluegrass Beacon" column on the issue: "Text message to Jody: R U 4 real?"
If your local newspaper doesn't yet carry my column, please request that they begin doing so.
Education bills get lengthy discussion in House Education Committee
Two key education bills, House Bill 322, which grants school superintendents a more extensive say in the selection of principals, and House Bill 301, which takes a number of actions aimed at improving the state’s inadequate high school graduation rate, received extensive attention today in the House Education Committee meeting.
Herald-Leader reporter Ryan Alessi does a good job covering most of the details at the Bluegrass Politics Blog so I won’t reinvent the wheel here.
However, one of the meeting’s comments from Representative Reginald Meeks (D – Jefferson County) really caught my attention. Meeks was discussing his bill, House Bill 301, to raise the dropout age. Said Representative Meeks:
“Give us an opportunity to build the kind of educational system in our commonwealth that – rather than facilitates young people dropping out – keeps them, makes them want to stay in and be better prepared to, to live a good life after high school.”
Imagine that. After almost 20 years of KERA, we STILL have high schools that don’t engage kids and make them want to stay on board to a diploma. Instead, per Representative Meeks, we still have schools that facilitate dropping out.
That’s just not right.
Whether House Bill 301 is the right answer is open to debate (which will continue in the House Education Committee next week, by the way). Forcing kids to stay in school isn’t engaging them, and it won’t necessarily lead to better educations.
But, what isn’t open to debate is the fact that – after 20 years of our educators telling us how great we've been doing – Kentucky’s high school graduation rate is still too darn low. And, the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that Kentucky’s high school graduation rate declined in 2007.
Knox County – Corbin Independent Schools deal just got MUCH bigger
We’ve been covering the loss of parental choice options because of the Knox County Public Schools’ recent cancellation of their long-standing student transfer agreement with the Corbin Independent School District since January.
Initially, it looked like around 160 or so kids would be forced to return to Knox County schools, but a new announcement says that number is in serious error.
The problem is that the Infinite Campus student tracking computer system (which we have raised concerns about before such as here, here and here) had many address errors.
Now, it looks like over 400 students are impacted, which could cause serious repercussions for the Corbin Independent School District if it looses that many students.
According to enrollment data from the Kentucky Department Of Education’s Growth Factor Report, Ethnic Membership By District And Grade, for School Year 2009-2010, the entire enrollment in Corbin Independent was only 2,681 students for that recent school term. If this small district suddenly looses over 400 students, the sudden enrollment drop of 15 percent could be devastating.
If those kids were being forced into a better school system, this might be justified, but as we have pointed out before, when it comes to graduation rates, middle school EXPLORE and high school ACT test scores, No Child Left Behind performance, and increasing performance and participation on the Advanced Placement tests, the facts are that Corbin Independent provides a much better education than Knox County does.
Given the sudden surprise about how many kids are impacted, look for this battle to get even more heated as Knox County’s lust for power faces off against what is best for (a lot more) students.
Link to FreedomKentucky.org!
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UK economist: Address budget process with sound principles, common sense
University of Kentucky economist John Garen suggests reducing state spending by implementing a 'program closing commission' modeled after the federal military base closing commission.
Click here to read the Bluegrass Institute Perspective.
Monday, February 8, 2010
It takes more than money to do technology in the classroom right
Fortunately, this $1.25 million mess didn’t happen in Kentucky, but there are lessons here for us.
The Jennings School District in Missouri purchased thousands of Palm T/Xs to give to every student in the system, grades three to twelve. The plan included spending $200,000 for teacher instruction on how to incorporate these hand-held devices into daily class work.
The high tech gamble never panned out.
Now, the Missouri taxpayer is going to take another hit because another education fad idea lacked real insight and follow-through. The Palms aren’t being used, and most are still in a warehouse. They are going to be sold or given away as this $1.25 million fad chasing plan crumbles.
There are lessons here for Kentucky school systems that are rushing to put computers in kids’ hands – think it through carefully.
Work out a good plan, first, about how the technology is really going to be used. If you don’t already have some teachers on staff who really know what is going on, be especially careful.
Since most of your teachers probably will need training, be sure that training will work for them.
Most importantly, be sure the plan has a high probability that it will work for kids.
Otherwise, you may just become the next school system to waste a big chunk of ever more precious tax dollars.
The only thing being stimulated is taxpayers' anger
So you still think all that stimulus funding was worth it?
Do you think it was worth it to spend $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at a nuclear reservation in Washington state? Or, how about the $219,000 dumped at Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen woman? Or how about the $3.4 million for turtles to build a 13-foot tunnel for turtles to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.? Or, I’m sure you’re thrilled to death about the $2.5 million worth of stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
If you don’t think that was worth it, then you might be smart enough to figure out that the $74,486 in stimulus funding spent on each of the 10,700 jobs the federal government claims the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created in Kentucky wasn't worth it, either.
Parents the key to making school choice happen
Ultimately, parents will provide the kind of grassroots pressure needed to bring school choice to Kentucky.
Take, for example, the latest research indicating higher -- much-higher -- graduation rates among students in Milwaukee's school-choice program.
The Wall Street Journal took note:
A report released last week by School Choice Wisconsin, an advocacy group, finds that between 2003 and 2008 students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program had a significantly higher graduation rate than students in Milwaukee Public Schools.
"Had MPS graduation rates equalled those for MPCP students in the classes of 2003 through 2008, the number of MPS graduates would have been about 18 percent higher," writes John Robert Warren of the University of Minnesota. "That higher rate would have resulted in 3,352 more MPS graduates during the 2003-2008 years."
The WSJ editorial concludes with this statement about the successful Milwaukee school-choice program: The Milwaukee program has survived for 20 years despite ferocious political opposition, and it would have died long ago if parents didn't believe their children were better off for it.
There's good reason to believe that the more Kentucky parents find out about how school choice works in other places, the more effective they will be in demanding Kentucky legislators follow suit.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Government ownership of GM and Chrysler raises conflict of interest flag on Toyota bashing
The news is full of Toyota recall information. That’s to be expected. But government ownership of two major Toyota competitors has to make one wonder: What’s up with all the government visibility in the matter?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Toyota owners to "stop driving" their recalled cars and then "clarified" his bombshell statement.
LaHood also said Transportation Department officials are considering civil penalties against Toyota for its handling of the sudden-acceleration matter. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said he would hold a hearing to consider how quickly and effectively Toyota responded to complaints about sticking pedals and slipping floor mats.
These government announcements have had a major impact on Toyota stock, which has plunged about 19 percent since the start of the recall frenzy; the manufacturer has lost tens of billions of dollars in market capital. All that bodes well for the government-auto companies competing with Toyota.
It's no secret that the government and union owned auto companies would like to see Toyota forced into union domination one way or another. The question is how much more can the government hurt Toyota by dragging out hearings, investigations, time taken to clarify government misstatements and double-guessing Toyota's every move. Would the government take the same approach against its own controlled auto companies?
Is the government's aggressiveness indicative of what other auto competitors and their suppliers can expect in the future? Is this an expansion of the government vendetta on the banks and the coal industry? Has the government taken all the steps necessary to separate its auto companies' planning, incentives and strategies from Toyota investigations, research, data, hearings, records, analysis and questioning?
Toyota is a proven, top-quality company. It doesn't need government to beat it into satisfying customers and doing the right thing.
The government-owned auto companies didn't compete well with Toyota in the marketplace. But now they just might have the equalizers they need -- the long arm of government interference and our tax dollars.
Which is more credible: Toyota or the government entities working to bring a great private company down?
It's time for the commonwealth's politicians and citizens to show support for a major free-market Kentucky manufacturer and employer.
One difference between charter schools and regular public schools
It’s a sad tale – one we want to safeguard against when Kentucky sets up charter schools – but it looks like there were a lot of fiscal oversight foul-ups in Ohio prior to the demise of the Harte Crossroads schools in Columbus.
Important records for Harte simply don’t exist, and the possibility of criminal activity over a three-year period is under investigation.
Now, the Harte schools are closed – completely.
Meanwhile, let’s not overlook the fact that our public school fiscal accounting system in Kentucky is no rose, either.
Way back in December, 2006, the Legislative Research Commission issued Research Report No. 338.
It outlined a number of serious problems with the Kentucky’s MUNIS education financial accounting system that prevented accurate accounting in many areas of educational expenditures. Over three years later, the program still has not been fixed. We continue to be plagued with an information black hole when we badly need accurate “bang for the buck” information as our policymakers wrestle with some tough decisions about which education programs may need to be cut.
There have also been some fiscal improprieties in Kentucky’s public schools.
Targeted money has been misdirected.
Federal stimulus money has not been properly tracked.
No one could account for the true costs of our now defunct CATS system.
And, we regularly hear nagging reports of school personnel running off with money that should have been spent on kids.
Often, these scams went undetected for years, as well.
These sorts of things happen when fiscal controls are weak.
But, here’s the big difference. While nagging reports of fiscal impropriety keep surfacing in our schools, I’m not aware of any public school getting shut down for fiscal impropriety since KERA began.
In sharp contrast, the Harte system is gone – completely. A number of other charter schools that didn’t measure up are gone, as well.
So, ultimately, which type of school do you think has a demonstrated history of more accountability – charter or public?
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Good insights into the recent Seattle court case on a bad math program
“What the heck is school curriculum doing in court, anyway? The answer tells us a lot about the problems of public schools.”
Dick Lilly, former member, Seattle Public School Board
We blogged a few days ago about a stunning court case in Seattle that says the school district in that city erred when it selected Discovery Math for its students.
Here is some insight from Dick Lilly on that decision worth a read.
One of his key points, “…curriculum conflicts — math teaching is only the most visible — are both a symptom and a cause of the problems the U.S. has with K-12 education. Put simply: We don’t know what to teach.”
Check the linked article to learn more about the astonishing things this court case may have uncovered.
Education gap ‘at the top’ is widening in Kentucky
It’s the gap few talk about – the performance gap for our top students, those who score at the “Advanced” level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and drag home those “5” scores on Advanced Placement exams.
Now, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy in Indiana has issued an extensive report on the growing gaps for our very top scoring kids, including a state-by-state breakdown for Kentucky. You can access both from this web page.
Here is a graph from the report that shows the growth in our top students’ White-Black NAEP Math gaps between 2000 and 2008. All of the kids included here score “Advanced” on the NAEP
Note that the graph refers to a “W-H” gap for grade 8. I believe this is a typo and should read W-B. In general, there are so few Hispanics in Kentucky’s NAEP samples that scores are not reported for them.
Similar graphs are available for reading for poor versus non-poor kids (via Free and Reduced Cost Meals analysis) and other tables and graphs cover even more gaps by sex and for AP results. In general, as the report found nationally, Kentucky’s top student performance gaps are also growing.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Politicians 'cronyism' sets new leadership low
More breaking coverage of the math curriculum lawsuit in Seattle
– Judge flunks Seattle's high school math program
More coverage, this time a video, from KOMO TV in Seattle on the lawsuit against Discovery Math.
If your Kentucky student is using any of the textbooks shown in this video, we’d like to hear about it.
Good question – Does your school listen?
Over at the Kentucky School Boards Association’s “Kentucky School Advocate” web place Brad Hughes asks a good question on page 27 of this somewhat clunky to read web document.
Asks Hughes, “When customers squawk, do schools listen?"
Hughes goes on to write that while Kentucky may never open a single charter school, the debate is an opportunity for local public school leaders to pose, ponder and act on a simple question about customer service. Basically, are schools listening, or not?
The fact that anyone involved with Kentucky education is beginning to talk about parents as customers – not just annoying folks who must be endured, but can usually be ignored – is a real move forward.
Text message to Jody: R U 4 real?
House Bill 43 would ban Kentuckians from "texting" while driving but still allow drivers to check GPS systems for directions. Good luck explaining which one you were doing to the officer at your window.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Huge news in Seattle – Court throws out math program!
In what may be a ground-breaking precedent, a court in Seattle has just thrown out Seattle's so-called "Discovery" math curriculum. The Seattle PI article says the math just didn’t “add up for a King County Superior Court judge, who rejected the style of instruction Thursday and ordered the district to try again.”
In the past, to my knowledge, courts have refused to intervene in issues involving curriculum, preferring to leave these sorts of matters to educators. Thus, the decision in Seattle may indeed be breaking new ground and could open the way for more lawsuits concerning some of the most questionable, least well supported curriculum adoptions in this country.
The Seattle PI article says, “Last May, the School board implemented a district-wide math curriculum called Discovering Math.”
The math program is based on the Discovery series textbooks, which started appearing in classrooms across the country in 2007. It comes from Key Curriculum Press.
I suspect this series is being used in school systems in Kentucky, as well. If so, those programs need to be reconsidered.
If readers know of school systems using this program in Kentucky, please let us know with a comment to this blog.
Governor sets education-progress bar unacceptably low
So just what is "significant, measurable progress?" Thousands upon thousands of young Kentuckians have had their future stolen during the past 20 years!
Quote of the day: Rotten hamburgers, education
"If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you're liable to be given more money to do it with." -- Ronald Reagan
Let’s do our education standards right
– What’s the rush?
It looks like Kentucky educators are rushing willy-nilly to sign onto Common Core Standards for K to 12 education before they’ve even see the final version.
Many questions remain unanswered.
The final release is delayed, again.
Is this the right way to adopt new education standards?
Why all the rush?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Commander's message to Kentucky: 'Failure is not an option'
Out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to education involves choices that advance the interests of children, not the system. Kentucky's education leaders need to recognize what Col. Green already knows: School choice is not the enemy of public education.
Some of Col. Greene's statements may not be politically correct. But there is no question that at the Eagle Military Academy, failure is not an option. That is an attitude that could serve Kentucky education leaders well.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
FreedomKentucky.org wants you!
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Have the scoop on government being wasteful? Want to share it?
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FreedomKentucky.org is Kentucky's only government transparency wiki. Anyone can sign up and contribute information about local, county, or state level government. FreedomKentucky.org profiles politicians, schools, school districts, tracks the state legislative process, conducts open records requests for the check register database, and countless other activities important to helping KENTUCKIANS TAKE BACK THEIR FREEDOM!
Sign up today and become a contributor!
Ashtray or Cashtray?
The tobacco tax in New York is a great example of what could happen in Kentucky if state leadership is unable to complete it's job properly and manage the state's out-of-control budget problem.
Last year, New York raised taxes on tobacco claiming a dual advantage: raise revenue and stop smoking. This tax included all tobacco products including cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars, and small cigars. In New York City cigarettes sometimes cost nearly $10 with $4.75 of that coming from taxes! Almost half the price is from taxes!
Kentucky already picked on smokers and the tobacco industry last year to try to raise revenue and used the same excuse.
In addition, smoking bans have been going into effect all across the Commonwealth (most recently at the University of Kentucky). This begs the question: if tobacco taxes are an important source of revenue, why are we restricting where people can smoke and discouraging them from picking the habit up?
Something doesn't add up here. Maybe legislators, not just in Kentucky but all over the nation, should get their act together and figure out where they can spend less money. If not, we'll see business band together like a group of tobacconists did in New York.
What do you think about tobacco taxes or the current budget situation? We'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below!
Tips from FreedomKentucky Blog...
Lots of great wiki editing tips last week on the FreedomKentucky Blog. Here's a quick glance at what was covered!
- How do I know when to start a new article?
- Creating a "See Also" section.
- School districts on FreedomKentucky.org
- Comments now enabled on FreedomKentucky Blog
- Creating categories
