Education Commissioner to Legislature: Don’t cave into adult interests with school reform

It’s sad.

Unmotivated adults in Kentucky’s public school system are using the state’s economic situation as a smoke screen in an attempt to undermine implementation of Senate Bill 1 from the 2009 Regular Legislative Session (SB-1).

The situation is apparently so bad, and so misrepresented, that Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday has found it necessary to officially alert members of the Kentucky legislature about what is happening.

SB-1 requires Kentucky to implement a much better state assessment program – one aligned to what kids will need in the future for college and careers. If schools want to do well under this new system, they are going to have to make some important changes.

However, Holliday’s letter indicates a disturbing number of educators in this state don’t want to put effort into changes that will improve education of our children. Quite simply, as the commissioner’s letter points out, some of the adults in Kentucky’s school system prefer the lesser demands of the status quo, which continues to fail many students.

Sadly, this really is no surprise. It’s a natural outcome of a system that runs mostly like a monopoly, tending to attract people of lower motivation who don’t like incentives to improve.

This is not to say all, or even many, of our educators are unmotivated. I know that is absolutely not the case. But, clearly, enough of Kentucky’s educators are standing in the way of progress that now the education commissioner feels it necessary to formally point it out.