Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on WBFI

Jim Waters, Bluegrass Institute vice president of policy and communications, will be on WBFI’s morning show Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (CST).

The program can be heard by 350,000 listeners throughout central Kentucky. Listen at 91.5 FM (McDaniels/Leitchfield), 97.1 FM (Ft. Knox, Radcliff) and 100.9 FM (Hartford/Beaver Dam).

Click here to listen online.

Jim is on the program the first Wednesday morning of each month.

New York Times: Punish parents when kids don’t learn

What do you think?

Should schools have the right to punish parents when kids don’t learn? Check out this article from the New York Times.

Let us hear your comments.

Follow Hayek's Advice

I just added the ability to make a reoccuring donation to the Bluegrass Institute!

This is a great and easy way to support limited, common sense, constitutional government and individual liberty in Kentucky!

Fund your free market think tank today and as F.A. Hayek once wrote, "We need intellectual leaders...willing to stick to principles...(leave the) practical compromises..to the politicians."

Recognizing the value of good teachers

“Now is the time to go beyond the rhetoric and to show that all of us—including the unions—are truly behind ensuring effective teachers in all classrooms.”

“The unions’ slowness in responding to reality has stung them with surprising quickness and force as newly strengthened governors have labeled the unions as the problem. If the unions want to continue, they must now act to get in step with the new reality. Specifically, they must get out in front on the teacher-quality issue.”

Eric A Hanushek, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Article in Education Week

Do schools want more than we can afford?

I mentioned a few days ago that the US Census Bureau just released the latest edition of its Public Education Finances report, this time for the 2008-09 school term. It didn’t take long for a newspaper to use the new data release to start fussing that “Kentucky lags in education funding.”

Too bad the newspaper didn’t check out more information from the Census Bureau’s report, including the interesting information in Table 12. In that table, the Census Bureau relates each state’s education spending to the state’s personal income levels. In other words, Table 12 ranks state education spending against the state’s citizens’ ability to pay.

Here are some highlights:


With 50 states plus Washington, DC included in the table, it is clear that once Kentuckians’ ability to pay is considered, we are doing an above average job of funding our schools.

What makes this more remarkable is that Kentucky’s relatively low per capita income means our citizens have fewer disposable dollars available to throw at education in the first place.

Clearly, once the average Kentuckian’s ability to pay for education is considered, it becomes clear that when Kentucky’s educators just whine for more money, they are turning a calloused eye on this state’s citizens’ ability to provide more.

Quote of the day: Memorial Day and courage

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” --Billy Graham

Quote of the day: Why local governments hurt, too

“Most states and cities in deep financial trouble all have one thing in common. They have been governed by liberal administrations, who believe in high tax rates and cozy relationships with public unions.” –Ron House, Zanesville (Ohio) Times-Recorder

An idea for a new video game

According to the May edition of The Lane Report, Frogdice, a young video-game company, has been awarded an $80,000 loan from the state "to help purchase software and other equipment."

While it's great that the company, as the report indicated, plans to hire seven new employees by 2014 and pay them an average annual salary of nearly $50,000 each, I have to wonder why taxpayers are being forced to loan them money.

Why don't they have to take the same route to secure funding that other private-sector companies travel, including convincing private lenders that they have strong enough credit and won't be leaving town anytime soon?

Perhaps they tried that route and still couldn't get a loan -- which makes this government "loan" even worse. Why should taxpayers be on the hook for an operation that a private lender does not consider worth the risk?

Ironically, the online version of this month's The Lane Report has a story at the top of the page about a Louisville bank being "one of the nation's top financial institutions with assets of $3 billion or more."

...and we have start-ups getting loans from the worst-run state in the nation?

Maybe this whole experience has given Frogdice an idea for a new video game, that could be marketed something like this: "Let's all play 'What happened to all that federal stimulus money given to banks for loans?'"

Whaddya think?

Taking up the cause of freedom starts with a simple vote

Based upon the dismal 10-percent turnout for this year's primary election, it appears the 'them not me' syndrome is alive and well in Kentucky. This Memorial Day weekend, let's commit ourselves not just to gripe about our nation's shortcomings, but to invest in keeping freedom's flame alive.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

Ghost-ly Statistics revisited

The year was 2005. The ‘KERA Amen Chorus’ was hot with accusations that Kentuckians were education cheapskates. That charge was based on a Governing Magazine study that said Kentucky ranked last in the nation for education spending. Governing said their ranking was based on data from the US Census Bureau. It looked damning.

But, the Bluegrass Institute thought the numbers looked wrong. We talked to the real experts at Census and found out that Governing Magazine indeed used the wrong Census data file to do its ranking. We found out the ‘right stuff’ from Census is contained in an annually released document titled “Public Education Finances.”

Governing’s problem: Kentucky uses unusual education funding policies that make it tricky to do apples-to-apples comparisons to education funding elsewhere. Governing used a Census file that was based on an incomplete, school district level picture of spending. That file totally omitted Kentucky’s large expenditures on teacher health care and teacher retirement, which are funded at the state level rather than the district level in the Bluegrass State. The charge we were dead last was based on ‘Ghost-ly Statistics.’

Flash forward to the present. A few days ago, the US Census Bureau released Public Education Finances 2009.

It is interesting to compare the total amounts Table 1 in the Census report says we spent on education in 2008-09 to the amounts that come from the Kentucky Department of Education’s own Revenue and Expenditures Report.


As you can see, there is a considerable difference. This in general is due to the amount we pay for teacher retirement and health care.

Those big ticket costs are often omitted from discussions about how much the taxpayer spends on education in Kentucky, turning these large dollar amounts into “Ghost-ly Statistics.”

But, Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer, your wallet knows – those big dollars are no ghosts.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: Jim Waters on Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio today

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) today (Thursday, May 26), on "Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio."

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show's call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It's informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

Interpretation gap, Patriot Act and open records laws

The renewal of the Patriot Act has been all the buzz lately. A recent interview with Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) from Wired.com poses an interesting thought that has implications for governments and legislation at all levels, not just the federal government:

"We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden tells Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands."

This "gap" is very important. For instance, when interpreting open records laws, it is very possible that private citizens and government agencies have very different ideas of how that process should work.

Here is a prime example.

Fayette County superintendent search, hiring tips

Fayette County Schools has recommended 5 applicants to the school board for consideration in the search for the a new superintendent. Any chance they took these superintendent hiring suggestions into account?

Given the track record in Kentucky with accountability of superintendents, I think maybe they should consider those suggestions.

'Prince of Pork' no more?

Via Ezra Klein:

Forget Paul Ryan, appropriations chair Hal Rogers is the real GOP hatchet man, writes Suzy Khimm: "Two weeks ago, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, made the GOP's next big move to slash spending for social programs. In a little-noticed proposal, Rogers detailed how the GOP wants to inflict the pain of more than $1 trillion in unspecified discretionary spending cuts contained in Ryan's 2012 budget, which passed the House in April...Under his proposal, the poor and the working class will be hardest-hit. On Tuesday, Rogers kicked off the GOP's budget-cutting party in the House, deciding which programs should pay the price. Rogers has focused on capping labor, health, and education spending at $139 billion--$18 billion less than the 2011 budget and $41 billion below what President Obama proposed in his own 2012 budget."

The key words here are "unspecified discretionary spending cuts," which means there's no need yet for any constituency to step forward and demand that their particular programs be restored. It's very easy to vote for spending cuts when the cuts aren't yet named.

Here's Jim's take on putting Hal Rogers in charge of the U.S. House appropriators.

Whatever gave it away?

Without charter schools, Kentucky is once again set up to miss out on Race to the Top funding.

The Obama administration announced today that it will release a third round of RttT cash. Kentucky and eight other states are eligible to compete for a $10 million to $50 million slice each of the third round's $200 million pie -- much smaller than the first two phases totaling $4.35 billion.

But state education officials are questioning whether to participate, since the results will likely be the same again. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported today that Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross said: "If charters remain a key requirement in the third round, it might not be beneficial for Kentucky to apply."

Probably not, considering every single one of the other eligible states --
Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina -- allow charter schools.

States that won RttT funding in the first two rounds also allow charter schools: Delaware ($100 million), Florida ($700 million), Georgia ($400 million), Hawaii ($75 million), Maryland ($250 million), Massachusetts ($250 million), New York ($700 million), North Carolina ($400 million), Ohio ($400 million), Rhode Island ($75 million) and Tennessee ($500 million).

Whatever gave it away that Kentucky would probably not get additional funding since it still doesn't allow charter schools within its borders?

Whatever gave it away? Whatever could it be?

Persistently Low-Achieving Knight Middle school recommended for principal, SBDM change

Superintendent Sheldon Berman clueless

The latest audit of a Persistently Low-Achieving School is out. This time the Knight Middle School from Jefferson County is in the spotlight, and the glare is pretty harsh. A few comments from the Audit:

• “The principal and school council have not demonstrated leadership that provides guidance and engages stakeholders within the school to meet challenges of struggling students in reading and math that address goals of No Child Left Behind.”

• “The principal has not ensured that teachers deliver student centered, rigorous, and differentiated instruction that meets the learning needs of all students.”

• “The principal has not fostered a culture of mutual respect between all staff members and students.” (My added comment: this is a guaranteed recipe for student failure. It fosters student violence and staff apathy)

• “The principal and school council have not established an organizational structure that promotes high student achievement and staff performance.”

• “The principal has not held all staff members accountable for their roles in improving student academic and behavioral performances to sustain continuous improvement.”

• “The principal has not engaged all stakeholders in decision making to develop a common ownership in the success of all students.”

As recently happened with the audit for Newport High School in Newport Kentucky the audit team is recommending that both the school’s principal and School Based Decision Making (SBDM) authority at the school need to be transferred. Given the comments above, the auditors really had no other choice.

Now, here’s the really sad part. Jefferson County Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman told the Courier-Journal:

“I was surprised at the deficiencies in how negative the audit was about leadership.”

Surprised? How can that possibly be?

Clearly, either the audit is totally fouled up, or Berman has not been paying attention.

Berman, of course, is on the way out. If the Jefferson County Board of Education wants to do the right thing in hiring his replacement, they need to spend some time looking over the audits for their Low-Achieving Schools. In fact, the board might want to invite members of the audit team to brief on what good schools look like. That way, the board can ask intelligent questions of the new superintendent applicants to see if those applicants know what a good school really looks like and how to not be surprised when a school isn’t measuring up.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: Jim Waters on Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio this Thursday

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) on Thursday, May 26, on "Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio."

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show's call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It's informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

Quote of the day: JCPS busing 'a colossal failure'

“The education here in Jefferson County Public Schools does not prepare large numbers of students to even graduate from high school, let alone get them ready for higher education.

"While I certainly don't blame it all on the school system, the system of busing students for 'diversity' has been and continues to be a colossal failure.

"Family members who want to be involved in their student's education and activities often cannot because of limitations and access to transportation between home, school and activity locations." --Mary L. Irwin, Letter to the Editor, (Louisville) Courier-Journal, May 24, 2011

Taking liberty to the airwaves: Jim Waters on Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio this Thursday

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) on Thursday, May 26, on "Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio."

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show's call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It's informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

Pension crisis primer

It is not a secret that Kentucky's pension system is in serious crisis.  Read more about this here.

We will no doubt be hearing more about this in years to come in Kentucky. In fact, don't be surprised if this issue is dominant in upcoming legislative sessions and election debates.

With that in mind, here is a simple and informative article that lays out some of the important language, terms, and concepts associated with pensions in Kentucky. This is a great primer for a basic understanding of the pension problem!

More on: Enemies of Coal (and Kentucky’s economy)

Points made by Dr. Len Peters, Secretary, Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, to Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce on May 20, 2011:

• One of every 20 Kentuckians is working in the manufacturing sector.
• They have jobs in manufacturing thanks to affordable energy in Kentucky.

• 30 percent of all stainless steel manufactured in the United States is made in Kentucky.
• 40 percent of all aluminum manufactured in the country is made in Kentucky.
• Kentucky is the third largest manufacturer of light duty vehicles in the country.

• If we don’t protect affordable electric rates, companies will build new plants overseas.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: Jim Waters on Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio this Thursday

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) on Thursday, May 26, on "Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio."

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show's call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It's informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

More on the highly paid, low performing leadership at Newport Independent Schools

District lacks capability/capacity to turn high school around

Talk about a school district in chaos! Check this comment!

“The dysfunctional relationship among the local school board, superintendent, high school staff, school council and union is impeding the district's ability to meet the needs of the students.”

Quote from: Newport Independent District Leadership Assessment Report dated 04/24/2011 to 04/29/2011


Newport High School was recently declared one of Kentucky’s ‘Persistently Low-Achieving Schools.’ That means both the school and the district required leadership audits.

The resulting “Newport Independent District Leadership Assessment Report” dated 04/24/2011 to 04/29/2011, is now available on line.

Aside from the quote above, there is much cause for concern about how this district has been managed by Superintendent Michael Brandt, whose 2010-11 salary of $174,344.34 ranks him the seventh highest paid superintendent among Kentucky’s 174 school districts.

Out of 88 ‘Indicators for School Improvement’ examined by the audit team, the report cites a large number of areas, over 80 of them, where the district either has made only limited development/implementation of education reforms or essentially has yet to start the process at all.

Worst of all, the report says:

“District leadership does not have the capability and capacity to manage the intervention of Newport High School.”

It’s got to be time for a management change when the leadership can’t cope with its responsibilities with its high school.

Read more »

An education comparison that never gets old

Don Boudreaux asks, "What if supermarkets were run like local public schools?"



Read Bluegrass Institute education work here.

Quote: Moloch and the 'education establishment'

“The Jefferson County education establishment worships the gods of Diversity and Political Correctness like the Canaanites worshiped Moloch. Child sacrifice is nothing new.” --Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst, The Family Foundation of Kentucky

Where is the check and balance on tax incentives?

In case you have not been keeping up, there has been a recent outbreak of tax "incentives". Various companies have been handpicked for tax favors incentives for expanding their operations. Most recently a theme park in-progress in Northern Kentucky received $43 million in tax breaks as well as securing an additional $11 million in road improvements.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am all for tax breaks - in fact, we should extend them to every single business in the state.  The problem lies with the origin, oversight and application of these "incentives".

Where in Frankfort is there a check and balance for this type of activity? Who decides what businesses receive tax breaks, how much they are granted, and what unfortunate entrepreneurs are stuck paying the full tax rate.

I would think that most businesses would like to have $11 million in road improvements around their operations. Why is this process not transparent?

Contact your state legislator and tell them you want this process to be more transparent!

Governor's 'Pride' cannot polish dull school performance

When it comes to education, Gov. Beshear says Kentuckians ''ought to be proud of what we've done.'' While such feel-good statements provide political cover for Beshear's buddies in the teachers union, the mystery remains: What, exactly, is there about Kentucky's academic performance to be ''proud'' of?

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

Tax breaks for theme parks

Tax "incentives" are special favors. Tax policy should not be rooted in giving special favors to some and not others. Rates should be low, yes, but they should apply equally to everyone who is engaged in an activity. When you lard up the state tax system with special favors for particular groups, you make it harder for entrepreneurs to evaluate the quality of your state's institutions. You also effectively raise the price of doing business for those who are not so well-connected politically. Instead of moving to Kentucky, many entrepreneurs might move somewhere with a simpler system. Beth Musgrave provides today's example:

A controversial Bible-themed amusement park received approval Thursday for up to $43 million in state tax incentives over a 10-year period.

The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority, which oversees tax credits for tourism and film-related projects, unanimously approved the tax credit for the Ark Encounter project, which is scheduled to break ground in August outside Williamstown in Grant County.

In addition to the tax rebate, the state may spend an estimated $11 million to improve an interchange off I-75 near the 800-acre site in Northern Kentucky.

The other issue here is one of transparency. Musgrave reports that the project's directors "would not disclose the major investors in the project but said that project backers are still raising money and hope to have all of the $150 million needed for initial construction by the end of June."

We shouldn't care about who these people are, but now that public money has been given so generously to them, it matters that we have no idea who will benefit from these special tax favors. Are they friends of Steve Beshear's political aspirations? It shouldn't matter, but now it does.

A handy state policy primer

The Cato Institute has put out a new State Legislative Guide. It's designed to help state policymakers address issues in a manner that expands individual liberty, promotes free markets and reduces the size of government. It's worth a look.

'Improve Medicaid, Empower States'

Yesterday, three US Senators introduced the Medicaid Improvement and State Empowerment Act designed to provide states with more flexibility to manage and run their Medicaid programs.

Senators Tom Coburn (OK), Richard Burr (NC), and Saxby Chambliss (GA) sponsored the bill. In a statement, Sen. Burr addressed the problematic nature of the current federal-state balance:

“States have a proven track record of being able to adopt innovative solutions to improve patient care. By giving them more control over their own Medicaid programs, we are allowing states to innovate and better meet their needs and, most importantly, the health care needs of their patients.”

By providing states with more flexibility and the incentives to manage their programs effectively, the Senators believe states can improve Medicaid outcomes and contain costs. You can view a summary of the bill here.

As we know all too well in Kentucky, a large matching rate from the federal government and program expansion do not necessarily lead to better care of the commonwealth's most vulnerable citizen. Without changing the incentive structure, states will continue to spend without restraint and without real attention to improving effectiveness.

One peril of pension reform

The United States government is now at its borrowing limit. In order to continue to make interest payments on debt, the federal government is considering some short-run borrowing from federal government workers' pensions. Many federal workers, after hearing about this plan, may decide to rush into retirement earlier than anticipated:

About 550,000 full-time career federal government employees and U.S. Postal Service workers could hang it up and move on at any time because they are currently eligible to retire, according to government statistics obtained Thursday. The eligible workers represent about a quarter of the 2.4 million permanent full-time employees collecting government or postal paychecks.

It illustrates one of the problems of a government-run pension system where outflows are determined in part by the decisions of thousands of individual participants: you can't make disruptive changes in the system without potentially affecting short-run outflows. That means the program itself is subject to a constraint that may not be built into actuarial models.

The actuarial models used in relation to Kentucky Retirement Systems, thankfully, typically assume that when a worker retires that they take full advantage of just about every benefit offered and will maximize their pension and then retire. That is, they make fairly conservative assumptions about the retirement timing decision of the average worker.

But in Kentucky, like the federal government, workers can retire early and thus begin collecting pensions (albeit smaller pensions) at a younger age. A decision en masse by Kentucky's government workers to take early retirement would devastate KRS's finances in the short run and could obligate taxpayers (through the General Assembly and county governments) to far larger pensions payments in the short run. That's why I argue that any reform of the pension system should not affect the decision environment for current workers who participate in KRS's programs.

Tax "incentive" questions, transparency

Governor Steve Beshear's office posted a press release today outlining some tax break incentives granted to a rail company for expanding their operations in Kentucky. The press release states that the expansion will create 75 new jobs.

New jobs are great, especially given Kentucky's unemployment rate.

This does bring up a couple of questions though:

1. What businesses in Kentucky are not receiving these tax incentives for expansion?
2. In an effort to make the Commonwealth as business friendly as possible, why don't we just extend these "tax incentives" to every business operating in the the state?

This is a great example of how transparency can be improved in the state. Citizens deserve to know why some businesses receive tax incentives while others do not.

Wow!

"The single greatest threat we have to economic development in Jefferson County, Kentucky is the public school system."


Gubernatorial Candidate David Williams

Quote from Fox41.com

Warrantless entry?

A recent Supreme Court decision justified warrantless entry by police officers into a person's home if illegal drug activity is merely suspected.  This was an 8-1 decision.

Interestingly enough, the case that was heard came out of Lexington, Ky. According to USA Today, this is what happened:

Officers had entered the breezeway looking for a man who sold crack cocaine to an undercover informant and then fled. Police heard a door slam, but did not know which of two units the suspected dealer had entered. A marijuana odor was coming from one of the doors.

They knocked on that door, announced they were the police, and, hearing noises, broke down the door. They found Hollis King, defendant in Monday's case, and two other people inside with marijuana and cocaine. (The dealer police had chased was in another apartment.)

This is troubling. Granted, the defendant was involved in illegal activity, but does this justify disregard for the 4th Amendment?

Should police officers be allowed to enter someone's private property without a warrant? Does this set a dangerous precedent?

Policing for profit in Tennessee

The report referenced in the video is available here. Kentucky received a D for its civil forfeiture laws.

Do you think police should be able to take cash without charging you with a crime?

Fight over more challenging curriculum continues in Frankfort

School board wants higher standards

Teachers don’t

More evidence of problems with school councils in Kentucky


The latest squabble between a locally elected board of education and that district’s teachers, who control the School Based Decision Making Councils (SBDM) in the district’s schools, is playing out in the Frankfort Independent School District.

Thanks to Kentucky’s incredibly ill-advised SBDM laws, the teachers are winning the fight, and kids are losing.

The crux of the argument is that the board wants to adopt an educational program from the College Board called “Springboard.” It is aligned to the new Common Core State Standards, which are now mandated statewide. Those new standards focus on getting kids ready for college and careers.

Teachers in the district fuss that Springboard is too demanding and will leave some kids behind. Frankfort’s teachers apparently have no sense of urgency about dealing with the fact that recent readiness testing shows dismally low numbers of the district’s students are on track for success.


So, the real question might be: Are teachers controlling the SBDMs worried about kids, or are they mostly just upset about having to make some significant changes in the way they teach in order to reach higher, badly needed standards?

Video: The Morality of Profit

This video is a great discussion on a basic economic concept: profit.

So often we hear about the "evil" people who "exploit" others by profiting. This video addresses that:

Finally: Some tough action in a Northern Kentucky Persistently Low-Achieving School

As we mentioned back in late March, after the US Department of Education determined that someone at the Kentucky Department of Education had taken too many KERA math classes and didn’t calculate the number equal to five percent of our schools correctly, two more schools had to be added to the state’s official list of Persistently Low-Achieving Schools.

Newport High School from the Newport Independent School District was one of those additions.

Now, findings from the resulting audit of Newport High’s staff have come in, and the news is rather stark.

Recommendation: Both principal Scott Draud and Newport High’s School Based Decision Making Council (SBDM) have to go. They both lack the ability to turn this chronically low-performing high school around.

Low performance in this school is no surprise. Newport has under-performed the rest of the state and especially other Northern Kentucky region school systems ever since KERA began.

What is a surprise is how this obvious situation was allowed to go on, unchecked, by the Newport District’s superintendent, Michael Brandt, and his local school board.

Brandt did have authority to replace the principal.

According to our analysis of the KDE’s Excel spreadsheet, “SUPERINTENDENT SALARIES (2001-02 THROUGH 2010-11 SCHOOL YEARS,” Brandt’s 2010-11 salary of $174,344.34 ranks him the seventh highest paid superintendent in Kentucky. That is over $56,000 higher than the state average salary for superintendents. Newport’s fall student membership for the same school year ranked it below the middle of the pack, with over 100 districts having larger membership (often loosely called enrollment) and only 66 having fewer students.

Learn more about how Newport’s school board ranked Brandt in our recent study, “Rewarding Failure,” on line here.

Our schools don’t teach many boys properly, effectively

Education Week (subscription?) is reporting that a new study from Thomas Mortenson, who has supplied graduation rate data to the Prichard Committee and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, makes some dramatic charges about the failure of our schools to educate boys.

Very simply, the ‘politically correct’ idea that boys and girls have to be educated in the same way to preserve equal opportunity actually is having opposite – and devastating – effects on the nation’s young men.

The impacts from the politically correct notions of teaching boys and girls in the same ways are startling. Mortenson found:

• In 2010, 62.8 percent of young men who graduated from high school enrolled in college, but the girls enrolled at a much higher rate of 74 percent.

• Boys ages 6 to 14 are more than twice as likely as girls to have a developmental disability and are three times more likely to be labeled as mentally retarded.

Not mentioned in the EdWeek report, but found on line in a Mortenson Power Point presentation about “Economic Change Effects on Men and Implications for the Education of Boys,” is this stunning slide, which also shows something is going terribly wrong for young men in the United States.


Mortenson argues that teaching styles and discipline policies cause boys to disengage sooner than girls and drop out of school at higher rates.

We found some evidence of that in our report, “How Whites and Blacks Perform in Jefferson County Schools.”

Table 2 in that report shows that across Jefferson County in 2006-07:

• White females had a high school graduation rate more than 10 points higher than white males.

• Black females had more than an 8 point graduation rate advantage over black males.

• In fact, black females had a high school graduation rate that was scarcely more than one point below the white male rate.

I know our better teachers are starting to come to grips with this problem, reaching out to boys with educational approaches that appeal to them. It’s way past time for all of our teachers (75 percent of whom are women, according to another slide from Mortenson) to move beyond the politically correct nonsense of past decades to insure that every child gets the education needed to succeed in this new century.

And, that most definitely includes boys.

The perverse incentives of federal funding

Medicaid spending across the country continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. We know this all too well in Kentucky.

The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate creates perverse incentives for states to grow their Medicaid programs unnaturally and beyond state capacity in order to receive more federal funds. The matching rate's design intends to provide a greater percentage of funds to the most impoverished states.

However, new research by Pamela Villarreal and Michael Barba at the National Center for Policy Analysis shows that the federal government's funding has led to significant disparities.

Despite the fact that poor states like Kentucky receive a higher matching percentage from the federal government, more populous states with larger programs actually end up receiving more funds. Because there is no limit to federal Medicaid funding, states can continue to grow their Medicaid programs without facing any penalty.

A 2008 comparison of states' poverty rates and their percentages of federal funding shows the discrepancies in spending. Villarreall and Barba write, "On one end of the spectrum, high-spending New York state receives 87 percent more federal funding than it would based on its poverty population."

ObamaCare only worsens the problem with its massive expansion in 2014 of Medicaid eligibility standards to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL). The federal government will fund 100 percent of this expansion at the outset, but the matching rate will decline in the years to follow. States will continue to feel the burden of strapped Medicaid budgets, but with no real incentives to stop spending.

The solution? The authors suggest increased state flexibility and capped federal funding.

Kentucky desperately needs increased flexibility and spending restraint if our Medicaid program will ever get on a path towards fiscal solvency.

Kentucky leaders, where are our right-to-work laws?

Senator Jim DeMint's office released a report that shows states with right-to-work laws are more successful.  The study found that these 22 states that don't force unionization as a condition of employment have more new residents, new businesses, new jobs, and faster income growth.

With Kentucky's unemployment rate at 10.2%, I think the state could use all those benefits.

So, Kentucky leaders, the question is: why is Kentucky behind on this? Where are right-to-work laws in Kentucky?

Leland Conway: Jack Conway misses the mark on gas price investigation

Leland Conway, co-founder and executive editor of www.conservativeedge.com and host of the Pulse of Lexington on News Radio 630 WLAP, allowed the Bluegrass Institute to repost his recent column in an effort to help keep Kentuckians informed and up-to-date on the latest issues.

On my radio show last week, I called on Attorney General Jack Conway to address the issue of high gas prices. I pointed out that a few weeks earlier, he and Governor Steve Beshear had taken to the stage to announce that they were “investigating” possible price gouging. I wondered why they had disappeared since then.

As if on cue, Conway came out the next day with accusations of price gouging and manipulation against big oil. He misses the mark. The real gouging that is going on is the EPA’s sustained attack against the American energy industry.

The EPA is regulating American productivity out of existence and most politicians are standing by and watching while the damage is being done. At best, we get a nonsensical parade like the one from Jack Conway and Gov. Beshear where they come out and do the “gas gouging” dance and throw subpoenas for big oil around like confetti on Cinco de Mayo. Meanwhile the EPA continues its destructive slash and burn “Sherman’s march” against energy.

Read more »

Teachers unions turning on their own

The Jefferson County Teachers Association spent $203,000 in last November’s election to defeat Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville.

JCTA president Brent McKim claims the group was trying to defeat Clark because the longtime legislator “ignored us.”

If a local teachers union would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a legislator they had previously supported for many years – and who often sides with them on issues – imagine what they will try and do to lawmakers who support merit pay for teachers, getting rid of School-Based Decision-Making Councils and charter schools.

The JCTA’s efforts failed with Clark. Hopefully, it’s just the beginning of a long losing streak for an entity that tries to suppress every attempt at genuine reform in the Jefferson County Public Schools, Kentucky’s largest school district.

If the engine runs too fast, adjust the 'regulator'

The best ideas really don't come from Washington. In his latest Bluegrass Beacon column, Jim Waters points to the policy brainchild of a Northern Kentucky resident that could protect all Kentuckians' freedom from being strangled by government regulation.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

When will the 'right to work' -- and prosper -- come to the Bluegrass State?

In today's Wall Street Journal, economists Art Laffer and Stephen Moore deem a recent National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing the equivalent of building a Union Berlin Wall around the borders of forced-union states to keep companies from moving to right-to-work states.

The NRLB complaint follows Boeing's decision to move production of the 787 Dreamliner from Washington, a forced-union state, to right-to-work South Carolina.

"It's the first time a federal agency has intervened to tell an American company where it can and cannot operate a plant within the U.S.," the article states. "It lays the foundation of a regulatory wall with one express purpose: to prevent the direct competition of right-to-work states with union-shop states."

There is one piece of good news to come out of all this, however. As the economists note, this is first time the Left has actually admitted that, as a New York Times editorial puts it, unions are suffering from "the flight of companies to 'Right-to-Work states where workers cannot be required to join a union."

Of course, Laffer, Moore, the Bluegrass Institute and every other conservative observer of labor policy already knew that. One of the reasons we knew is the work of Laffer and Moore in their annual economic competitiveness report, "Rich States, Poor States" published by the American Legislative Exchange Council. Consider:

• States that have right-to-work laws grow faster than states with forced unionism.
  
  
• During the past decade, the right-to-work states grew faster in nearly every respect than their union-shop counterparts:
  
  
  • In Gross State Product: 54.6 percent versus 41.1 percent
    
  • In personal income: 53.3 percent versus 40.6 percent
    
  • In population: 11.9 percent versus 6.1 percent
    
  • In payrolls: 4.1 percent versus -0.6 percent
    
    
• Between 2000 and 2008, nearly 5 million Americans moved from forced-union states to right-to-work ones. "That's one person every minute of the day."
  
  
• Between 1977 and 2007, right-to-work states demonstrated a 23 percent higher per capita income growth rate than forced-union states, which "amounted to a $2,760 larger increase in per-person income in those states. That's a giant differential."
  
  
• Wages rose faster in states that don't require union membership.

First, the federal government assaults the constitutional rights of states and individuals to determine their own health-care policies. Now, they are trying to interfere with a private company's decision to move because it "could not 'afford a work stoppage every three years' as had happened in Washington state over the past decade," according to the WSJ article.

Which gubernatorial candidate would have liked to claim credit for bringing those 1,000 Boeing jobs to Kentucky?

Hmmm. With all this talk about "jobs" we're hearing on the campaign trail in Kentucky's gubernatorial race, will we also hear that one way to attract these jobs is to get rid of our antiquated and costly forced-union rules?

Why don't you let your legislator, or your favorite gubernatorial candidate, know: Kentucky needs to tear down its own job-busting walls and support a right-to-work policy and the economic prosperity it would bring.

State revenue is up...so now what?

Earlier today, Governor Steve Beshear mentioned on Twitter that he was excited about revenues being up this month:

According to the Courier-Journal article that the governor references, this amounts to roughly $62.1 million more than a year ago. That's pretty good. I think we all probably wish our personal revenue was up 8% over last year.

What are the odds that the $62.1 million will be spent toward Kentucky's budget shortfall?

With revenues up, what would be the responsible fiscal action our state leaders should take? Let us know in the comment section!

Eliminate Tax Breaks on Government Debt?

If you own your home, you receive an incentive to go deeper into debt than you otherwise would if you take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction. Some people act on that incentive by buying more house. Some people extend the terms of their mortgages.

So what happens when we give a tax break to those who earn interest income on debts issued by governments? It means more people offering to buy the debt than normal which means lower interest rates than normal. Lower interest rates for borrowers usually means more borrowing.

The question is this: Why subsidize government borrowing through the tax code? After all, it's always taxpayers who are liable for bad borrowing decisions by government.

The idea of eliminating tax breaks for municipal bonds is again under consideration in Congress. It has merit.

Here's why. When the financial crisis struck, it decimated the private bond industry. Tax revenues, meanwhile, declined. Investors, seeking cover, put more money into tax-free bonds. That move into tax-free bonds effectively lowered the price of borrowing for local governments who were also strapped for cash. And in a down economy, making borrowing easier than cutting spending has obvious ramifications for your future tax bills and waste in government.

The idea is worth considering. What's more, eliminating that tax break can serve two partisan desires. It's the elimination of a tax break for big investors, something Democrats often like. It also has the benefit of compelling local governments to live within their means even in the short run, an idea attractive to fiscal conservatives.

FOX-41 shows videos of school bus violence in Jefferson County

We’ve written a lot about the crazy school busing situation in Jefferson County’s public school system. Kids are routinely uprooted from their neighborhoods and bused all the way across town in rides that can exceed an hour in length, one way.

With inadequate supervision, it was inevitable that problems would occur. The only surprising thing is how many problems are occurring, and how nothing very effective is being done to fix the situation.

The latest insight into the conditions on the school system’s buses came in a FOX-41 expose which ran on May 9, 2011.

Some interesting points:

• The school system has 930 buses, but only 40 security cameras.

• There are only 25 bus monitors. In all other cases, the bus driver is the only adult on board.
• The Transportation Director admits, “Every day we have a fight on a bus, or two buses, or three buses."

• Noses are getting broken; a kid’s hair is set on fire; kids are getting concussions; kids’ arms are getting broken.

• There are more than 100 pages of felony case filings for this school year alone.

• Jefferson County busing managers say they know only a few kids cause problems, but they do nothing effective to deal with those students.

The really sad thing is that if busing for integration worked, with 40 years of busing now history in Jefferson County, there wouldn’t be any more need for the long rides. Minorities would have moved up into the middle class by now, and into the more prosperous neighborhoods, as well.

Instead, after two decades of KERA, West End schools in Louisville continue to seriously under-perform. And, instead of focusing on academic improvement – and spending money to make that happen – the district’s school leaders are just throwing dollars away on thousands of gallons of diesel fuel for buses that probably contribute more to student anxiety and dislike of school than to good student development.

It’s time for good people in Louisville to start putting real pressure on their teachers union controlled school board to take action. No business on the plant would continue pushing a failed experiment for forty years, and it’s time for citizens to demand something better from their school leaders.

If you know more stories about problems in Jefferson County’s buses, we’d like to hear them. You can submit these anonymously with the comment feature in this blog.

Business vs. Labor

As the battle between business and labor grows more contentious, the threat to the private sector is becoming more severe.

This week, Lexington's conservative radio host and blogger Leland Conway chronicled the recent battle between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Seattle-based company, Boeing. While Kentucky is not involved directly in the battle, we are not immune from such overreach by the federal government.

When Boeing decided to expand its new building operation to South Carolina, the NLRB stepped in and "told" a private sector business they were not allowed because South Carolina was a "right to work" state.

Conway writes, "The NRLB’s decision violates nearly every conceivable sense of corporate sovereignty and property rights. If the decision stands, it will mean the end of rule of law for businesses and will cause many corporations to rethink future investments and perhaps even look to other nations from which to operate their companies."

The significance of such a decision will not only hurt the growth of South Carolina's economy, but it will have staggering implications for businesses and states across the country. This instance of the federal government's encroachment on the private sector should cause great unease for all of us.

Conway closes with this chilling reminder: "What if those jobs had been coming to Kentucky? What if this happened to [your] company? It is time for business to stand up against this continuous intrusion. "

GOP gubernatorial candidate debate tonight

This evening's edition of 'Kentucky Tonight' on KET features the three GOP candidates. The show starts at 8pm. This is sure to be an interesting discussion. I believe this is the first time all three Republican candidates have been gathered together.

In a previous edition of the show the candidates for Lt. Governor were gathered together.  You can view that here.

Public workers: Underpaid or over-appreciated?

There's a perception that government workers are underpaid and therefore deserve better benefits than are typically offered in the private sector. The facts offer a different view.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullet.

Kentucky's pension promises: worse than you think

The Pew Center on the States noted recently that Kentucky was at the bottom when it came to state-issued funding for its pension systems. In 2009, Pew noted that Kentucky put just 58% of the actuarially-recommended amount of money into the state's pension funds. In 2010, Kentucky again put just 58% of the actuarially-recommended sum. That put Kentucky at the bottom of the pension funding list.

First of all, this is a terrible turn of events that, far from being unforeseeable, was largely predictable. After all, lawmakers run for office every two or four years. Funding pensions properly during the good times is a challenge when reelection prospects might be shored up by funding a local arena project instead of making appropriate contributions to the pension funds. During the 2000s, Kentucky lawmakers put aside a small fraction of the recommended contributions into the Kentucky pension funds and the economy was doing reasonably well over the same period. What everyone should recognize is this: Kentucky's pension plans were underfunded before the financial crisis.

And it should come as no surprise that funding pensions during tight budgetary times is even more difficult. In tight budgetary times, it's easier to cut funding to pension programs than it is to social programs. Wise stewardship of government workers' pensions seems to always come second to some other priority in good times and bad.

This is not to say that funding social programs should or should not be a higher priority than funding state pensions. It's just to point out that what supposedly took lawmakers by surprise in 2008 and 2009 was as predictable as the tides.

Indiana gets voucher law and greatly expanded school choice

While Kentucky parents have virtually no choices in where their children go to school, Indiana has just stepped out with one of the most expansive parent choice programs in the nation.

As we mentioned in April, Indiana was in the process of enacting a historic school voucher law that would allow parents to send their children to whatever school they choose and the school tax dollars would follow their child.

That law has now been enacted and signed.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels says:

“For families who cannot find the right traditional public school, or the right charter public school for their child, and are not wealthy enough to move near one, justice requires that we help. We should let these families apply dollars that the state spends on their child to the non-government school of their choice.”

Daniels explains that Indiana must honor and trust parents to make the right choices for their children.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky the system sends signals to parents every day that it does not trust them.

Read more about the new Indiana law here.

And, here is the Wall Street Journal's take.

New supplier for high school tests is good bet

The Kentucky Department of Education has announced that ACT, Incorporated, the creator of the ACT college entrance tests, will supply new high school end of course exams in English II, Algebra II, Biology and U.S. History for all public schools in Kentucky.

ACT, Inc. already supplies the EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT tests for all Kentucky eighth, tenth and eleventh grade students. These three, coordinated assessments check student progress on getting educations for college and careers.

The selection of ACT for the four new end of course assessments should insure a high degree of linkage between those courses and what students need to learn in them to be ready for college and careers, as well.

ACT, Incorporated has an extensive track record in developing tests that measure what is important. Aside from the ACT, which checks on preparation for college, ACT also creates the Work Keys assessments for business and industry, which tests for skills needed in non-college careers. This unique expertise in both higher education and business needs positions ACT to provide superior products to Kentucky.

Meth plan would exacerbate prescription drug abuse crisis

Kentucky faces a prescription-drug abuse crisis that Gov. Beshear rightly described in his recent congressional testimony as “the fastest growing, most prolific substance abuse issue facing our country.”

That’s precisely why Kentucky lawmakers rightly resisted proposed legislation during the 2011 session of the Kentucky General Assembly to require prescriptions for purchasing cold and allergy products containing pseudoephedrine – an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, a highly addictive and terribly destructive drug.

Why do some law-enforcement officers vow to keep fighting for this misguided approach when, if passed, it would exacerbate one of our most serious drug-abuse problems? The proposed policy would also remove the current real-time tracking system known as MethCheck, which blocks 10,000 grams of potentially illegal sales of meth ingredients each month.

Pharmaceutical companies implemented and funded the MethCheck system, saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. While we may not have “won” the meth war, we are containing it as law enforcement officials have the tools to find and shut down more meth labs than ever.

What other answers might the private sector come up with that could offer more success than the government solutions that have failed to curb the prescription-drug abuse crisis?

Education bureaucrats crying 'poor'

A favorite mantra of defenders of the status quo in Kentucky's public education system is that poverty is standing in the way of many students getting the education they deserve. However, the evidence does not support this claim.

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on the Joe Elliott Show

Richard Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, will be on the Joe Elliott Show on 970 WGTK-AM in Louisville on Monday at 1 p.m. EDT.

Innes will be discussing the current educational challenges in Kentucky.

The Joe Elliott Show is broadcast weekdays from Noon to 3 p.m. EDT.

Listen live here.

In a recent blog emphasizing the need to better prepare elementary school teachers in order to improve Kentucky students' sagging Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) results, Innes writes:

"Kentucky’s current requirements for elementary teachers create a set up for people who are math phoebes to get into teaching – a situation virtually guaranteed to create problems for students that will lock those kids out of any chance to go into the areas of science, technology, math and science – the so-called STEM areas."

How much higher can college tuition go?

We wrote earlier on a study by The Family Foundation of Kentucky last year reporting that Kentucky's colleges and universities have failed to control costs and have been increasing tuition rates that far outstrip median households.

But that didn't stop the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky from seeking a 6 percent increase in tuition and Eastern Kentucky and Northern Kentucky universities from raising rates by 5 percent -- all well above the rate of inflation, and above what Kentucky families can afford.

"Six percent is almost three times the rate of inflation," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky. "Every tuition increase of this size puts a college education that much more out of reach."

Apparently, those increases were approved by the Council on Postsecondary Education's meeting recently. To see how much the price of obtaining a college degree has risen in the past 20 years, click on the graph below. This graph was published in the April 2011 edition of The Lane Report.



Blaming the increases on the need "to partially offset budgeted cuts in state funding," the council said it "will be establishing performance targets that will affect future funding and tuition levels."

A press release stepped all over itself to trumpet that its "performance targets will include metrics such as improved graduation rates."

Which raises the question: Why weren't these metrics already in place?

ObamaCare, Medicaid and emergency rooms

According to NPR, some emergency room doctors say the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare") will make emergency room overcrowding worse:

Hospital emergency rooms, the theory goes, get overcrowded because people without health insurance have no place else to go.

But that's not the view of the doctors who staff those emergency departments.

The real problem, according to a new survey from the American College of Emergency Physicians, isn't caused by people who don't have insurance — it's caused by people who do, but still can't find a doctor to treat them.

A full 97 percent of ER doctors who responded to the ACEP survey said they treated patients "daily" who have Medicaid (the federal-state health plan for the low-income), but who can't find a doctors who will accept their insurance...."The results are significant," said ACEP President Sandra Schneider in prepared comments. "They confirm what we are witnessing in Massachusetts — that visits to emergency rooms are going to increase across the country, despite the advent of health care reform, and that health insurance coverage does not guarantee access to medical care."

(h/t Peter Suderman)

Fixing science and math preparation begins with elementary school teachers

We’ve been saying that the under-performance of public education isn’t just a high school problem for years.

Now, a national research group has published a report that agrees with the obvious – and with us.

Education Week says a new report from the “Center for American Progress” shows you won’t get good math and science preparation at any school level if kids have elementary school teachers who are weak in those academic areas.

The new report points out that elementary school teachers can get a degree and be certified after taking an inadequate amount of coursework in math.

We pointed this very problem out following the August 8, 2005 meeting of the Kentucky legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee (EAARS). A discussion pointed during the meeting out that it is possible for a teacher to graduate from our education schools and become certified after taking just one, extremely undemanding math course in college – something called “elementary math.” This is taught below the level of college algebra.

Indications are that this course is very undemanding and appears aimed at people who hate math and cannot do math.

Most recently, we mentioned this problem here.

Kentucky’s current requirements for elementary teachers create a set up for people who are math phoebes to get into teaching – a situation virtually guaranteed to create problems for students that will lock those kids out of any chance to go into the areas of science, technology, math and science – the so-called STEM areas.

We’ve been pointing this out for over half a decade. Now, others agree.

The real picture of entitlement spending

While Washington continues to battle over the budget, the forecast for entitlement spending grows more grim.

This graph by The Heritage Foundation's lead budget analyst, Brian Riedl, shows the trajectory of entitlement spending in the US budget.

Riedl's estimates reveals an increasingly problematic trend. From 2008 to 2020, he projects entitlement spending (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) to increase $909 billion.

The question we should be debating is not whether or not we should reform entitlements but how. Entitlement spending continues to drive up the debt, and the problem is only getting worse.

This projection certainly has significant implications for Kentucky, particularly as the commonwealth continues to struggle with its Medicaid budget. As a joint state and federal program, the forecast for increasing federal Medicaid spending will not leave Kentucky's program untouched.

If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet

I read today that the Obama administration is considering a working draft of a bill that would tax drivers based on how many miles they drive.

What's next? Taxing musicians based on how many notes they play? A tax based on how many square feet your gas powered mower travels when you are maintaining your property?

Reminds me of a song...

Quote of the day: Mourning 'the death of fiscal federalism'

“We should mourn the death of fiscal federalism.

"The fear of losing taxpayers to another jurisdiction gives policymakers an incentive to keep taxes, regulations and other intrusions modest; but homogenized, top-down policy diminishes the incentives for states to compete for residents.

"Instead of competing for residents, states compete for federal funding and privileges. It's a system that rewards the best lobbyists while wasting taxpayers' money."

--The Heritage Foundation, "Make States Compete by Reviving Fiscal Federalism"

What can Kentucky do about Obamacare?

Not only will failing to bring down Obamacare result in a loss of our personal liberties, it will also offer the equivalent of a "do not resuscitate order" for one of America's greatest founding principles -- federalism, writes the Heritage Foundation's Robert Moffit.

Moffit notes the uniquely American principle of federalism "was already on life support before the individual mandate."

In a recent edition of The Insider , he makes a strong case for state officials going to battle with the federal government over this issue -- not just because of what it will do to our health care system, but due to the precedent it will set in opening the floodgates for other government intrusion.

Of course, Kentucky officials have been very partisan, choosing to side with their political pals in Washington on this issue rather than serve the citizens they committed to protect and the Constitution they swore to uphold.

He urges state officials to:

* "Move ahead with their own agenda for health reform, not just play a waiting game until 2014, listening for Washington to tell them what to do and how to do it.

* "Seize every inch of territory in the health policy debate within the law, such as health insurance market reform."

* "Challenge every transgression of their legitimate authority if and when federal officials violate it."

* "Hold their own public hearings on the impact of the federal law on their citizens, employers, employees, insurers and medical professionals, and state agencies."

* "U.S. senators who voted to impose costly mandates on their states should be invited to state legislative hearings to give an account of their actions and explain why they believe such mandates advance the true interests of the states they represent." (Since neither Kentucky U.S. senator voted for this fiasco, we would urge, instead that House members who support it be invited to Frankfort.)

* "Invite federal officials to appear and explain how they intend to implement mandates and make them justify their proposed rules in broad daylight."

* "State legislators, in cooperation with colleagues in sister states, should make it clear that dumping hundreds of pages of complex federal rules into the Federal Register for public notice and comment is no longer sufficient."

We wonder when our Governor and Attorney General might quit just feeling good about sending out meaningless press releases full of warm fuzzies about ribbon cuttings and start getting serious about fulfilling their constitutional obligations to protect Kentuckians from an ever-encroaching federal government.

Medicaid flexibility bill proposed in Congress

Yesterday, House and Senate Republicans announced a new bill that would provide states with more flexibility to run their Medicaid programs. The proposed legislation would repeal the maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements of ObamaCare.

While ObamaCare's official Medicaid expansion does not take place until 2014, states are not allowed to scale back their eligibility levels in the interim.

An initial estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that over the next five years this increased flexibility granted to states would save the federal government $3 billion. Supporters of the bill argue that the inability of state officials to manage their Medicaid eligibility standards will inevitably result in cuts to providers.

The commonwealth watched as state officials struggled to shore up the Medicaid budget deficit during this year's session, and the scrutiny will only continue until savings are realized. This type of legislation could have significant implications for future budget discussions.

'Rewarding Failure', 'Operation: Open Records' are not baloney

In case you missed it, Kentucky's governor thinks the work of the Bluegrass Institute is baloney...

Gov. Beshear calls BIPPS baloney by Bluegrass Institute

• "Rewarding Failure" is a report released by the Bluegrass Institute earlier this year talking about the lack of accountability in the performance evaluations of Kentucky's school district superintendents.  It was based on the results of open records requests and features actual copies of performance evaluations of superintendents.
• "Operation: Open Records 2011" is a project that led to many records requests.  The requests were tracked on FreedomKentucky.org.  Here you can view the requests made to the governor's office.  

A lack of accountability when it comes to children's education, claiming that leadership is successful despite the academic failure of the district, the denial of open records requests by the governor's office...

...you decide what the real baloney is!

Confusion in Jefferson County Schools? YOU BET!

Could put millions of federal school turnaround dollars at risk

The Courier-Journal recently reported that “State says 'confusion' lingers over Jefferson school turnaround plan.”

You bet it does!

What the district is doing to restaff and turn around dismal educational performance in its Persistently Low-Achieving Schools (PLA) makes no sense to us.

A Bluegrass Institute open records request netted us the same letter cited in the Courier’s article. This letter was written on April 29, 2011 from Kentucky Department of Education legal counsel Kevin Brown to Sheldon Berman, the superintendent in Jefferson County.

We also open records requested union contract documents known as Memorandums of Agreement that pertain to how the school district would select teachers to restaff the PLA.

One issue raised in the Brown letter is particularly bothersome. Brown points out that a number of the PLAs in Jefferson County wound up with too many inexperienced teachers after the restaffing was accomplished. However, Brown also reviewed the union contract in Jefferson County. He cites a section that says:

“The Superintendent or designee for good cause and extenuating circumstances will execute transfers as may be necessary for the efficient operation of the school district.”

In other words, the superintendent had the ability to step in during the restaffing process to insure that sufficient experienced teachers were placed in each PLA. Berman didn’t do that.

Read more »

Curriculum fight pits SBDMs against school board

The Frankfort Independent School District is the scene of the latest control fight between School Based Decision Making Councils (SBDM) and a local school board, which is elected by the people. The school board wants to push the district’s students harder. The teachers don’t

SBDM in Kentucky (which are solidly under control of teachers) have ultimate power over many things that happen in the state’s schools, and one of the key areas is the final selection of curriculum.

Thus, the Frankfort Board of Education set the stage for a battle when it voted – without the approval of the district’s middle and high school SBDMs – to adopt a new curriculum that prepares students to be ready for Advanced Placement courses.

Even though the new curriculum program, called SpringBoard, is aligned with the new Common Core State Standards, and even though the program was unanimously accepted by the board, there is no guarantee that the SBDM will agree to use it. And, under current Kentucky law, the SBDMs get the ultimate say. That’s true even if teachers want to drag their heels about doing anything significant to improve education for our children.

According to the Frankfort Journal article “Council rejects new pre-AP curriculum” (subscription), SpringBoard will cost the district over $24,000. The local board is willing to pay. But, if teachers there have their way (and they will unless someone changes the law), the program may not cost a penny. Why? Because the SBDM clearly don’t want it, and they can tell the locally elected school board to go take a hike.

Watch for more fights like this as local schools start to adopt new curriculum to comply with the Common Core State Standards.

Quote of the day: The heart of the (education) matter

“We can’t fix STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) without fixing K-12 education.“ --Joe Kelin, CEO, Educational Division of News Corporation and former Chancellor of NYC Department of Education

Charter schools: What do 41 other states and the District of Columbia know?

Kentucky remains one of 10 states without a law allowing charter schools, "and I think we're probably going to remain one of the states without charter schools," Carl Rollins, D-Midway, recently stated on KET's "Kentucky Tonight" program.

Rollins claims that nobody has convinced him that charter schools "are really going to help us make progress.”

Yet why is it that 41 other states and the District of Columbia -- including six of seven of Kentucky's neighboring states -- allow charter schools while 43 other states have some type of school choice law. Kentucky has neither.

States without a charter school law: Kentucky, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Alabama, West Virginia, Vermont and Maine.

States with no school choice law: Kentucky, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Alabama and West Virginia.

Show us the savings

Gov. Beshear claims his administration saved $86 million in Medicaid efficiencies last year. Enquiring Kentucky minds want to know: Where's the proof?

Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Bullet.