Busing nonsense in Louisville schools flunks court test

The Courier-Journal reports that by a 2 to 1 vote, the Kentucky Court of Appeals has ruled that the current school bus nonsense in Louisville, which buses five-year olds clear across the city in an attempt to make student racial demographics more even across the city, is illegal.

Showing that they will never understand that busing over the past 40 years has failed to create real educational equality or do anything to improve the chronically low-performing West End schools in Louisville, the Jefferson County education officials say they will waste still more time and dollars with an appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Talk about learning disabilities!

Does School Choice Matter? If your daughters are trapped in a failing and dangerous school, it does.

"They are still affected. They still have moments when they think Mommy is going to be taken away.” – Ohio mother Kelley Williams-Bolar, explaining her daughters’ reaction when she was jailed for enrolling them in a school district based on her father’s address.

When you can’t compete, bash the other guy!

According to a recent Washington Post article, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is beginning a television ad campaign this weekend to point out that messages sent via snail-mail are not susceptible to computer viruses and can't be erased with a simple click of a button. This is an attempt to generate some business as the USPS is set to announce historic losses.


Don't get me wrong, there is an advantage to sending some messages via the traditional parcel service BUT let's be honest about what is really happening here. In its current form, the Postal Service simply cannot compete with emerging technology. Rather than pointing out the rather small number of downsides of your competitor, why not try to adapt the organization to better serve a changing communications environment.
An ad campaign trying to sell an out-of-date model just seems like a waste.

States are now suing pension systems for information

Pension systems all over the nation are in crisis and they have garnered quite a bit of media attention over the past few months.

Today, Andrew Harris of Bloomberg.com reported that that the state of Colorado is suing the state's pension system to obtain information about the top 20% beneficiaries of the system. The lawsuit does not seek to obtain identities but does seek amounts paid and the ages of the retirees.

This is a huge step toward transparency and accountability for the pension system in Colorado and perhaps leaders in Kentucky should take note...it could/should happen here soon!

School choice remains under fire in Harlan County

A school choice squabble between the Harlan County School District and the Harlan Independent School District is still broiling.

The Harlan Daily Enterprise reports that a supposed district to district transfer agreement between the two school systems has fallen apart.

The district to district transfer agreement had gone through a mediation process, but Harlan County Schools then sent a detailed paperwork passage to the independent district that “does not represent our understanding of the mediation,” according to Harlan Independent superintendent David Johnson.

Johnson went on to say:

“Because Harlan Independent School is committed to the right of Harlan County families to chose where their children are educated, we will not agree to a contract that asks currently enrolled students to leave our schools now or in the future.”

Johnson also said his district is committed to school choice, and it’s not hard to understand why parents in Harlan County would want that. In the new combined math and reading proficiency rates just released by the Kentucky Department of Education, Harlan Independent’s rate is 10 points higher than Harlan County’s.

So, Good job, Mr. Johnson.

And, shame on Harlan County for putting their selfish ‘adult interests’ ahead of the best interests of students. Harlan County, you need to stop fighting to destroy competition with your monopoly mentality and instead overcome the competition with better schools.

Peter Orszag, meet F.A. Hayek

Peter Orszag, Barack Obama's former OMB director:

In an 1814 letter to John Taylor, John Adams wrote that “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That may read today like an overstatement, but it is certainly true that our democracy finds itself facing a deep challenge: During my recent stint in the Obama administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, it was clear to me that the country’s political polarization was growing worse—harming Washington’s ability to do the basic, necessary work of governing. If you need confirmation of this, look no further than the recent debt-limit debacle, which clearly showed that we are becoming two nations governed by a single Congress—and that paralyzing gridlock is the result.

So what to do? To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.

F.A. Hayek (The Road to Serfdom):

It may be the unanimously expressed will of the people that its parliament should prepare a comprehensive economic plan, yet neither the people nor its representatives need therefore be able to agree on any particular plan. The inability of democratic assemblies to carry out what seems to be a clear mandate of the people will inevitably cause dissatisfaction with democratic institutions. Parliaments come to be regarded as 'talking shops,' unable or incompetent to carry out the tasks for which they've been chosen.

Still leaving kids behind

One of the new features in Kentucky’s school testing program is a “Gap to Goal” report. This shows the difference between the actual combined proficiency rate in math and reading to a goal of 100 for all major student groups such as African-Americans, learning disabled students, and so forth.

I just looked at the Gap to Goal trend for all our schools from 2010 to 2011 for African-Americans. The results are not exactly encouraging.

After sorting a KDE Excel spreadsheet for “All Districts” (998_2011_GAP_TO_GOAL[1].xls) available on line here, I found that 258 schools improved their average proficiency rate for math and reading for African-Americans, while 32 schools stayed flat.

The really bad news, however, is that African-Americans in 206 schools had a reported decline in their combined math and reading proficiency rate. That isn’t a much different number from the 258 schools that improved a bit for their African-American students.

Bottom line: kids of color are still being left behind. We need to do more for them, like creating charter schools which show good progress at raising scores for African-Americans.

New test scores mean schools trying to confuse with misleading Prichard Index again

With the new Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) scores out today, some schools and districts are again trying to mislead Kentuckians with a cobbled together unofficial “Index” created by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

But, not everyone is being fooled. Said one observer:

“The index is misleading and it is not in the best interest of the implementation of Senate Bill 1.” This observer added that the index isn’t reliable, and then said, “I hope they don’t use those.”

Now, take a guess at who this observer is. No, it’s not anyone from the Bluegrass Institute.

It is Lisa Gross, the media relations spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education!

There you have it. The KDE itself views the Prichard Index as detrimental to the advancement of our educational system under Senate Bill 1 from the 2009 Regular Legislative Session. Still, as the New Era points out, some Kentucky educators still cling to this inflated index, which is grounded in an equally inflated testing system. Prichard’s index does not tell us what we really need to know: are our kids being educated for college and careers.

That is really sad.

Green Jobs

I'm writing a very short piece on the nebulous "green jobs" we hear so much about, when I came across this claim from 2007:

Renewable energy creates twice as many jobs per unit of energy than traditional fossil fuel-based generating technologies.

Roughly translated, this says to me:

Renewable energy requires twice as many labor hours to generate one unit as an identical unit of energy produced from fossil fuels like coal or oil.

Why is that a selling point in favor of renewable versus fossil fuel-based energy sources? It's almost like saying that renewable energy is good because it's inefficient to produce.

New NCLB and Kentucky testing results released

Too many schools fall behind

Big surprise in Jefferson County’s lowest performing schools is questioned

Educator excuses don’t work for me

The new testing results from the 2010-2011 school term are out from the Kentucky Department of Education, and news articles are exploding across the state.

The headline for the department’s press release covers one of the most important findings:

“42.6 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS MEET ALL NCLB GOALS”

The Courier-Journal also reports on this unsettling statistic, saying that more than half our schools failed to make all of the required No Child Left Behind (NCLB) targets in math, and/or reading and/or other areas such as graduation rates. Meeting all targets is required by federal NCLB legislation.

Of course, Kentucky’s educators are quick to condemn NCLB when so many schools are failing, but are those educators really right?

Scores for Kentucky NCLB accountability are inflated

For one thing, Kentucky’s testing with the now defunct Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT) – but used up to this year for both NCLB and state reporting – says that 69.90 percent of our eight grade students were proficient in reading in the past school term. Two years ago in the 2008-2009 term the number was not much different at 66.94 percent.

That 2009 data is significant because we can compare it to what the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2009 Reading Report Card said our reading proficiency rate was for a carefully selected random sample from the very same group of students. Per the NAEP, only 33 percent of our students were proficient readers – less than half of the figure our bloated KCCTs reported.

A similar issue shows up when we look at 2009 NAEP math scores for eighth grade students here. Our KCCT said 60.93 percent of our eighth graders were proficient in math. NAEP said it was only 27 percent, again less than half what our state tests reported.

Other testing raises more questions

We can also compare the 2011 KCCT figures to results for reading and math from the EXPLORE tests, which all our eighth graders took in the fall of 2010.

EXPLORE says that only 39.3 percent of our students met the reading benchmark score that shows they are on track for preparation for college and careers. In math, EXPLORE reported only 32.2 percent were on track. EXPLORE is created by the ACT, Incorporated, the same organization that creates the ACT college entrance test. If I were going to bet which test, the EXPLORE or the KCCT, gives us the best idea about how well our kids are being prepared for postsecondary education, the EXPLORE would win, instantly.

So, the grim reality is that evidence from both the NAEP and EXPLORE indicate that the new NCLB report which says 42.6 percent of our schools are on track might actually be a bit rosy.

Persistently Low-Achieving Schools post big gains in Jefferson County

By the way, one of the big surprises in the new scores release involves rapid improvement in some of Jefferson County’s Persistently Low-Achieving Schools. The Courier-Journal separately reports there were big gains in Western, Shawnee, Fern Creek and Valley high schools.

But, as the Courier reports under the title, “Lowest-performing Jefferson County schools make big gains,” there is also a credibility problem with those big score increases. People are questioning if they are real. You see, the increases are VERY dramatic.

For the sake of credibility, the Kentucky Department of Education needs to look at the possibility of testing manipulation in those schools. There are a number of forensic test analysis protocols in use today, and it would be highly beneficial to all concerned if the department will confirm that such examinations have been made and no hanky-panky was discovered.

Personally, I hope that the increases in Western, Shawnee, Fern Creek and Valley high schools are legitimate. If they are, it will lend strong support to our belief at the Bluegrass Institute that staffing is a part of the problem in our under-performing schools, and in the best interests of our children, we simply must come to grips with the reality that some of our teachers are part of the issue.

But, given the questions swirling around dramatic test score increases, I’m not tooting any horns just yet.

I’ll be doing more on the new test results, but a death in the family will probably slow that analysis down. Please be patient – it will be forthcoming.

One major difference between charter schools and regular schools

When educators misbehave in charter schools, they get removed right away

When educators misbehave in public schools, it takes forever, if ever, to remove them

This extract from a longer video about the school testing scandal in Atlanta needs to be highlighted.

When staffers cheat in a charter school, removal is easy.

When staffers cheat in a public school, removal can take forever.

A Kentucky case in point is the ACT cheating scandal that broke in Perry County almost exactly one year ago.

That cheating allegation was confirmed in early December 2010.

It’s almost October 2011. We are still waiting for any action to be taken against any of the school personnel involved. The cheaters are still in the Perry County school system, still teaching students.

If this were a charter school, those cheaters would be gone.

Will NCLB waivers be legal?

And worthwhile?

Kentucky’s educators are hot to get an exemption from No Child Left Behind laws (NCLB) that will allow us to use only our new, state-developed accountability system to judge school performance.

It’s an understandable desire, but do President Obama and his US Department of Education have the authority to grant such waivers under current law?

And, will the always present strings that will come with such a waiver create more problems than the waiver solves?

CNS News’ Fred Lucas chimes in with this informative piece.

Atlanta cheating scandal & transparency

This is a perfect example of why transparency in the education system is so important.

NKAPC and the good ol' boys

The future of the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission may not be on November's ballot. But it's still on Tom Wurtz's mind, who says voters need to hold the culprits responsible in future elections.

Wurtz, a columnist for the Journal News in Northern Kentucky, said the NKAPC thinks its "clever manipulation of the system has silenced taxpayers' voices. But in reality all they have done is awakened a sleeping giant, 'We the People.'"

Despite gathering more than 24,000 signatures (in ONE county) to allow the voters to decide the fate of the fiscally bloated and politically unaccountable NKAPC, the good ol' boy network kicked into high gear and so far has succeeded in keeping the issue off the ballot.

Here's how Wurtz says he will hold the "Northern Kentucky Political Country Club accountable for this travesty of freedom" by asking them several questions. And if they do not answer them to his satisfaction, they will not get his vote.

Read all of the questions here. Here is a clip of a few:

"Did you sign the petition to dissolve the NKAPC? No! You’re fired! When NKAPC’s leaders provided incorrect financial data to the public, did you demand that the NKAPC leaders be fired? No! You’re fired! Did you demand that Kenton County’s Attorney recuse himself from this dispute due to his conflict of interest, since he represents the Kenton County taxPayers and the NKAPC taxTakers? No! You’re fired! Did you propose legislation to change the required number of petition signatures from 25% to a more reasonable level of 5%? No! You’re fired!"

Read more here.

Speaker, former Labor Secretary cited in investigative report on bloated pensions

Our founders never intended for politicians to go to Frankfort, make a career out of ruling in government and then mooch off taxpayers for the rest of their lives. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening in Kentucky.

An eye-opening investigative report by USA Today reveals how career politicians right here in the commonwealth are benefiting from a minor change in 2005 to a Kentucky law governing state pension policies.

But the USA Today report is just the tip of the iceberg.

During the upcoming weeks, the Bluegrass Institute will be using information gained for a report on Kentucky's public pension crisis to expose egregious policies and wasteful spending practices to make the case for dramatic and rapid reform of the state's pension system.

One sentence added to the law allows retiring legislators who have held other state jobs to use the highest salary among all of their positions to calculate their legislative pensions.

“The 2005 law has boosted legislative pensions of at least four other retired legislators and will help at least another dozen incumbent or former legislators who have not yet retired,” the USA Today report stated.

The report cited J.R. Gray, who began getting a $132,252 pension from the Kentucky Legislators Retirement Plan last year, and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who has enough credit for a pension “equal to 100% of his attorney general salary -- $110,346.”

Both Gray and Stumbo would qualify for significantly smaller pensions without the change in 2005. For example, Gray ‘s pension is based on the three years he served as Labor Cabinet Secretary, in which his salary averaged $132,252, instead of the $24,651 he earned in his final year of a 26-year career as a state legislator.

Stumbo, meanwhile, would qualify for a pension of less than $40,000 had the law not been passed.

Quote of the day: Are there two reactions for every government action?

“Who can now doubt that, as Professor Mises pointed out thirty years ago, every intervention by a political authority entails a further intervention to prevent the inevitable economic repercussions of the first step from taking place?" --Ludwig Lachmann, Ph.D., in his essay "The Market Economy and the Distribution of Wealth," 1956

Teacher, want to know why kids cut your class? Look in the mirror

It’s an amazing collection of information, all within a week. And, it provides some astonishing insight into why kids in inner city Louisville are not showing up for school.

This blog was triggered by a Courier-Journal piece, “Jefferson County teachers union questions high student absences at failing schools.”

Per the Courier:

“The teacher’s union has asked Mayor Greg Fischer to form a joint task force with the district to examine why those schools’ absence rates are so high.”

Well, the union may not like the answer, IF the mayor does this right.

You see, someone already asked the question.

Last weekend John Stossel aired another of his “Stupid in America” investigative reports on our public schools. In one segment of the show, he talked to former Washington, DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee about kids who were cutting school there. Rhee said something amazing.

Rhee found out kids were showing up for one class – even early in the morning – when the teacher was doing a good job, but they then skipped out of school before attending any more classes.

Why?

The students are happy to come to school when classes are taught by teachers who know their subjects, are excited about teaching it, make it relevant to the students and basically care about the kids. But, these kids won’t stay around for teachers who are not effectively teaching them.

Wow!

The Stossel/Rhee story took on another dimension for me yesterday at a meeting of the Northern Kentucky Forum. The subject was education, and the Forum brought in four high school students as part of the discussion team.

Along the way, the kids dropped a bombshell: why should they be interested in learning various subjects when the teachers themselves seemed so unmotivated about the material being taught?

Now, these kids weren’t from the inner city. They were from one of the more concentrated areas of better schools in the state. These students understand that education is important to their futures. But, just like kids from inner-city DC (and probably in Louisville), they don’t enjoy having to endure unexcited, unmotivated teachers, either.

So, bring it on, Louisville. Why don’t you sit down with a group of frequently absent students from those Persistently Low-Achieving Schools and find out why they are cutting class. I’ll bet your teachers union won’t be able to stand some of the answers.

Make no mistake – we need Kentucky’s kids in school. Their futures and the future of our economy demand it.

But, before we force those kids back into failing schools, we all need to look ourselves in the mirror and resolve to make sure once those kids are back in school, that they will have teachers who make the experience worth it.

AdvanceKentucky driving Kentucky’s improvement in AP course performance

About a week ago, the Kentucky Department of Education announced that the state had made very nice progress with the performance of Advanced Placement courses in 2011. Some highlights statewide:

• There were good increases in the number of students who got scores of 3, 4 or 5, which usually provide college course credit for the high school students who take AP courses.

• The number of students taking at least one AP exam increased nearly 80 percent since 2007, rising from 13,208 to 23,547 students.

While this was good news, I knew there would be more to the story. In the past three years AdvanceKentucky’s very dramatic program to improve AP offerings in Kentucky’s public high schools has accounted for a dramatic proportion of the state’s overall improvement in AP course participation and passing score rates.

Now, I know the answers for this year, and the dramatic story of AdvanceKentucky continues to grow.

In fact, the real story about AP improvement in Kentucky is largely the story of AdvanceKentucky improvement.

AdvanceKentucky’s news release dated September 22, 2011 has one sentence that summarizes the whole story very nicely. It says that in 2011 AdvanceKentucky participating high schools:

“…contributed 83 percent of Kentucky’s new AP passing scores in all subjects statewide, although they account for only 22 percent of the junior-senior enrollments statewide.”

Wow!

Want to know more? Just click on the “Read more” link.

Read more »

Last vestiges of the CATS school testing era finally sunset

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) just announced that the last set of test scores to be based on now obsolete testing elements from Kentucky’s failed CATS school assessments will be made public on September 27, 2011.

Here is a summary extracted from the KDE news release:

Three report sections will be made publicly available on that day, posted in the KDE Open House section of the agency’s website.

The three report sections are:

Achievement
o No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Reports
o Interim Performance Reports
o Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) Combined Reading and Mathematics Proficient/Distinguished Report
o Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) Combined Reading and Mathematics Proficient/Distinguished Trend Report


Readiness for College/Career
o High School Graduates College/Career Readiness

Gap
o 2011 Combined Reading and Mathematics Gap-to-Goal Comparison Report

I’ll be taking a look as soon as the data is publicly available.

This pending release will include the last set of results from the Kentucky Core Content Tests (KCCT). This coming spring, our students will be assessed with new tests based on the new Common Core State Standards. Hopefully, these new tests will be much better aligned to what our students need for college and careers. As a consequence, I expect proficiency rates will drop, perhaps dramatically, when the new data is first released around September of 2012.

McCreary Superintendent evaluation includes student achievement

The most recent performance evaluation of the McCreary County Public Schools superintendent includes a section devoted to "student achievement". This is huge step forward with regards to holding district leadership accountable for poor performance.

In the 2010 evaluation, there is no such mention. You can view the 2011 evaluation here. Both of these evaluations were obtained via the Kentucky Open Records Act. If you look closely on the "Student Achievement & Learning" page, you will notice there is an asterisk with the title. At the bottom of the page you will see that this section of the evaluation was recommended by "education support groups". Yes! yes it was!

Rewarding superintendents while the students in their district suffer through underperformance is an issue that has been plaguing Kentucky for quite sometime. For full analysis of this issue, be sure to check out Rewarding Failure: The rubber-stamping of Kentucky superintendent evaluations.

Quote of the day: Does the free market serve 'self-interest' or 'selfishness?'

"A common mistake is to identify the purposes of people exclusively with their 'self-interest,' which is then in turn confused with 'selfishness.' The purposes of people in the market are indeed purposes of selves, but as selves with purposes we are also concerned about the interests and well being of others -- our family members, our friends, our neighbors, and even total strangers whom we will never meet. Indeed, markets help to condition people to consider the needs of others, including total strangers." --Tom G. Palmer, "The Morality of Capitalism"

New Economic Book Club works include 'Atlas Shrugged'

Why is Haiti so poor and Hong Kong so rich? Can capitalism be moral? What fixed the Great Depression? Who won the War on Poverty?

These and other economic issues will be discussed at monthly meetings of the new Economics Book Club, sponsored by the Bluegrass Economic Education Society (BEES), being led by John Garen, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Gatton Endowed Professor of Economics.

The meetings are open to the public.

The first meeting will be Wed., Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. in Room 324 of the Business and Economics Building, located at 550 South Limestone St. in Lexington. Additional meetings are planned for Oct. 26, Nov. 15 and Dec. 14.

Garen will lead discussions on selected works by classical and contemporary economic thought leaders, including Adam Smith, Thomas Sowell, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. Among the works that will be considered are: "The Fatal Conceit" by Frederick Hayek, "Self Interest and the Constitution" by Bruce Epstein and Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

For more information, contact Frank Byron at BEESociety@gmail.com.

Kentucky's move to managed care delayed

Last spring, to address a $100 million plus Medicaid budget deficit, the governor proposed borrowing from the 2012 budget and making up the loan by moving the state's Medicaid population to managed care. His plan ultimately passed, but not without much debate and line item vetoes.

This summer, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) has been coordinating the details of the transition. In July, the contracts were announced with a promise for an October 1 start date. After the federal government approved the state's request for a waiver to move the program to managed care, CHFS again promised October 1 would mark the official implementation of managed care.

Yesterday, CHFS announced they would delay implementation one month further to November 1st, citing the delay was a response to the request by the Kentucky Hospital Association for more time.

While the savings of the move have already been announced, the question remains, how will the delay impact the fiscal future of the state and the program? How will the Medicaid budget and health care providers fare in this move? Most importantly, how will Kentucky's most vulnerable citizens be affected?

Our concern is that this move is only piecemeal reform; it does not address the fundamental problems inherent in Kentucky's system. Our recent report, An Unsustainable Path, seeks to diagnose the real problems and lay out a clear path towards a more sustainable future.

Huge economic loss thanks to short-sighted Kentucky House

Cincinnati.com just announced that a Fortune 400 company, Omnicare, is pulling up stakes in Covington, Kentucky and moving its headquarters across the river to downtown Cincinnati.

Five hundred Northern Kentucky jobs are going with the move. That means the city of Covington alone will lose hundreds of thousands in payroll tax income. The city is already saying the move will force it to rework its budget due to the large shortfall. As a state-located corporation, the move will also put a severe hit on the Kentucky State tax coffers, as well.

One really sad note: the news article says the Omnicare move was triggered in part by tax legislation in 2005 that created an extra tax burden. Despite that, Northern Kentuckians like Covington City Manager Larry Klein say they worked hard to keep Omnicare, but in the end it looks like those local efforts were outdone by short-sighted House legislators in Frankfort who wouldn’t pass a bill on job retention credits that was needed to sweeten the package.

Congratulations, Kentucky House. You just cost this state a huge source of tax revenue – a Fortune 400, (not 500, 400) company.

And, where was the leadership from the top to help keep this valuable company from moving on to greener pastures?

By the way, one of the reader comments to the news article is interesting, spelling errors and all (or did the reader refuse to capitalize Kentucky and Louisville on purpose to make a point, as Cincinnati IS capitalized??):

“This will be a double blow to kentucky, as Omnicare is purchasing louisville based PharMerica and will move those jobs from louisville to Cincinnati.”

If true, Louisville needs to wake up, as well.

So, here is a message for Frankfort. This state has one of the most business-hostile tax structures in the nation. Not only is that making it hard to attract new business, but now it is making it easier for other states to poach those businesses we do have here. Wake up!

AdvanceKentucky’s AP course program paying off for Kentucky students

We’ve already made it clear that we are big fans of the AdvanceKentucky program to improve the Advanced Placement (AP) college credit course program in Kentucky’s public high schools.

And, with the recent good news announcement from the Kentucky Department of Education that AP participation and performance increased again in 2011, I am confident that once again the AdvanceKentucky schools will be responsible for a considerable portion of the overall improvement (more on that is promised by AdvanceKentucky on September 22).

However, thanks to the Gleaner newspaper in Henderson, Kentucky, we already know that students in the Henderson County High School AdvanceKentucky program are reaping big benefits – such as $16,000 in cash awards – for earning AP scores of 3 or higher in recent testing.

The students will reap much more when they go on to college. Not only will the better educations they have received by taking these advanced courses put the students in a much better position to succeed in college, but they also can save another bundle on courses they won’t have to take in college.

You see, most colleges accept passage of an AP course with a 3 or higher score as proof that the student has mastered the college material covered in the course. Students don’t have to retake those courses in college but can move on to higher level subjects right upon college entry. That can make it possible for students to complete college a year ahead of their peers, which is a huge savings if you haven’t checked out the latest annual costs to attend a college.

Once the AdvanceKentucky report is released this Thursday, I’ll take a look at how many of the success stories in the KDE news release are due to the wonderful AdvanceKentucky initiative.

One thing I can tell you right now, no AP successes in Jefferson County will be due to the AdvanceKentucky program. You see, the teachers’ union in Jefferson County steadfastly refuses to allow any kids in our largest school district to benefit from AdvanceKentucky’s program.

Why?

Selfishness!

You see, teachers also get awards when their students do well in AdvanceKentucky courses. But, that just looks like merit pay for the ever-put-adults-first teachers’ union. So, the union in Louisville willingly sacrifices the best interests of both students and top-performing teachers to have its own way.

Capitalism and choice

"When you hear 'Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back,' the last thing that should come to mind is a government program. In free markets where choice prevails, conflict is minimized. If you don’t like the wares in one store, there’s no need to throw up a picket line, attend boring meetings and be talked down to by public 'servants,' or wait until an election and hope that 50%-plus-one will vote the way you want. You shop elsewhere. End of discussion." - Lawrence W. Reed, Foundation for Economic Education.

What’s happening in those Persistently Low-Achieving Schools?

For some, it was a brutal face-to-face with reality that cut off all chances for continued denials. Their schools – sometimes the entire school district – were doing an extraordinarily bad job for their students. They were performing at the very bottom of the heap in Kentucky. And, changes were going to have to be made.

But, what are those changes, and do they provide any hope that Kentucky’s current list of 22 Persistently Low-Achieving Schools and problem school districts are on a hopeful path of turn-around?

CN|2 takes a video look inside one troubled school district, the Newport Independent School District, and its Persistently Low-Achieving Newport High School.



The school system has seen big changes this year – a new high school principal, new high school dress codes, a new district superintendent – along with basic changes in the way the teaching staff conducts business.

Will this be enough to turn this chronically under-performing school around? It’s way too early to tell for sure, but the students look neat and purposeful on camera, and it is clear the students believe the new principal cares for them more than the outgoing principal did. That can’t help but be encouraging.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on Louisville's WLRS 105.1 FM Talk

Phil Moffett, the Bluegrass Institute president and CEO, will be on Money for Louisville with host Alan Mercurio today at 9 a.m. (EDT).

Listen live here.

Money for Louisville airs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Stupid in America with John Stossel

He’s back!

Stossel again takes on the education establishment this Saturday, September 17, 2011, at 10 PM (ET and PT) on the Fox News Channel.

According to a heads up from the Center for Education Reform, this time Stossel has some good examples of charter school systems that buck the status quo, under-performing regular public school K to 12 system.

Stossel was a BIPPS guest speaker several years ago in Lexington shortly after he did his first “Stupid in America.”

You can get a little “pre-taste” of what is coming here.

Stossel is provocative and far too often dead on target.

As you listen in, keep in mind that Kentucky has no charter school law, hence no charter schools. But, we have plenty of teachers unions.

People will be talking.

Can a 9.5% jobless rate be called "steady"?

Today, the Commonwealth of Kentucky issued a press release announcing last month's unemployment numbers with this headline:

"Kentucky's jobless rate steady at 9.5 percent in August 2011"

It's interesting that the Education and Workforce Cabinet chose to label the jobless rate "steady." To me, the word "steady" implies the sense that affairs are on solid footing and that the outlook is certain. While it is true that the jobless rate didn't move from July to August, a label of "steady" is a very misleading representation of the current situation.

Our jobless rate continues to remain above the national average (9.1 percent), and there is no euphemism that can paint the current economic outlook in a brighter light than reality: over 9 percent of Kentucky's workforce is out of work. I'd hardly call that steady.

A judge who doesn't care for 'Big Brother' either

Check out Bullitt Circuit Judge Rodney Burress' WONDERFUL statement in striking down the UNCONSTITUTIONAL smoking ban in his county. The ban was scheduled to go into effect in four days. I hope this decision demoralizes all liberty busting Smoking Nannies in Kentucky who want to control our lives from cradle to grave.

Check this out:

Jefferson County school busing flunks test

An education law professor and national expert on school busing plans has tarred and feathered the nonsense in Jefferson County.

The Courier-Journal quotes busing expert Gary Orfield, “The current plan isn’t working.”

Orfield says that his final recommended changes were far greater than he originally thought would be needed. In the end, the existing elementary school busing plan needs massive overhaul to cut travel times.

Orfield also saw right through Jefferson County’s “magnet” school nonsense, which turns the concept of true magnet schools on its ear. Per Orfield, the programs “Aren’t very magnetic.”

Orfield really gets one favorite Bluegrass Institute position:

“Students should pick schools,” he said, “not the other way around.”

Not everyone was impressed by the Orfield proposals. Teddy Gordon, the lawyer who won a 2007 US Supreme Court decision that threw out an earlier Jefferson County busing scheme certainly wasn’t buying this latest attempt to rework busing. Gordon asked, “How much more is JCPS going to rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic?"

Most importantly, Gordon pointed out that busing “does not work in improving the education for any child in Louisville.”

Given the school system’s well-below average performance, including having five of the lowest scoring high schools in the recently announced ACT testing program, that is a pretty obvious conclusion to reach.

And, 40 years of busing has failed to fix the school district’s gruesome performance record.

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS on Louisville's WLRS 105.1 FM Talk

Phil Moffett, the Bluegrass Institute president and CEO, will be on Money for Louisville with host Alan Mercurio this Saturday, Sept. 19, at 9 a.m. (EDT).

Listen live here.

Money for Louisville airs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Not school choice!

The Harlan Daily Enterprise says an agreement on student transfers is being struck between the Harlan Independent and Harlan County school districts.

It’s a restrictive agreement that cuts into school choice options for parents in the region. If adopted as proposed, parents will have to pay transfer tuition $1,500 per child per year. Even worse, a maximum of only 225 non-resident students will be allowed in each district in the next school year.

Read more »

New Congressional Scorecard

A new scorecard by Heritage Action for America, a Washington, D.C., based conservative action organization, scores congressional members by their votes and bill sponsorships and how aligned their legislative actions were with conservative principles.

You can view the scorecard here to see how Kentucky's delegation voted this past year and to learn how our neighbor states fared.

Heritage Action acknowledges that the "scorecard isn't graded on a curve--it's tough and we don't apologize."

State school assessment personnel face tough questioning before legislative meeting

Unprecedented review ordered

Members of the Kentucky Legislature’s small but powerful Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee (EAARS) called representatives from the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to task today for the proposals for the state’s new public school assessment and accountability program.

Legislators were unhappy about several important issues, including:

• Proposed regulation lacks important information -- Review requested
• Scoring scheme could hide actual proficiency rates
• No emphasis on math and science
• State Board added items not authorized in the legislation

Read more »

Successful cheating on school tests in Kentucky could get harder

Cheating on state tests has become a hot topic recently after huge scandals in Atlanta, Georgia and elsewhere have focused attention on the fact that not all educators are saints.

Now, USA Today reports that Kentucky will join a growing list of states that conduct forensic examinations of unusual erasures on test answer sheets.

It’s funny that this came up today in the national news as I was just talking earlier today with officials in Frankfort about the on-going investigation into cheating on the ACT college entrance test in the Perry County high schools.

So far, no action has been taken against school personnel for that inappropriate activity, but my contact in Frankfort reminded me that it takes time to put together an iron-clad case that will stand up under review. So stay tuned on this one.

And, if you are an educator thinking about cheating on the state’s new assessment program next spring, or on the ACT, I’d suggest you forget about it. The odds of getting caught are going up.

CMS to Kentucky: Managed Care Plan Approved

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) has granted approval for Kentucky's proposed plan to move Medicaid to managed care.

Under the proposed plan, the commonwealth will transfer 560,000 Medicaid recipients into one of three new managed care providers, leaving the 170,000 Passport enrollees with their current managed care coverage.

Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) plans to move all enrollees by October 1, with the goal of saving money and improving care.

The Constitution in 140 characters or less...

Constitution Day is upon us! This Saturday, September 17, marks the 224th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, the important document that protects the freedoms that we as Americans enjoy today. What are you doing to celebrate?

To get the party started early, join the Bluegrass Institute this Friday, September 16, from 4 to 5 pm ET as we participate in a "Constitution Day Eve Happy Hour Tweet Up" hosted by the State Policy Network (SPN) on Twitter.

Here's more from SPN about the Tweet Up:

"How to join?

1) Follow twitter.com/StatePolicy

2) Use #WethePeople in your Tweets

3) Ask Constitutional scholars questions, quote the founders or share your passion for the freedom in 140 characters"

Look forward to a lively discussion on freedom, liberty and what makes this country so great. Hope many fellow Kentuckians can join!

A(n ‘Omissive) History of Education in Kentucky?

I attended a forum yesterday at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) organized around the recent release of a new book, “A History of Education in Kentucky.” It was written by EKU Professor William Ellis’ and discusses the history of education in the commonwealth from 1775 to the present – sort of.

I will leave it to experts on early education history to comment on Ellis’ treatment of schooling in Kentucky pre-1990. Certainly, that part of his book provides interesting reading.

Regarding Ellis’ discussion of the KERA period from 1990 forward, found in the book’s Epilog, I can offer pertinent comments. I have lived – and been involved – in this period of history.

At best, Ellis’ Epilog omits a tremendous amount of important material.

A prime case in point: Ellis’ provides no mention what so ever about the formation and activities of the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA), an absolutely incredible oversight.

From a historical standpoint, the OEA has produced a research treasure trove with its two decades of annual reports on the progress of KERA. That rich, primary source information simply cannot be ignored by any credible attempt to provide an accurate history of education in the state post-1990.

The OEA is also very unique – it’s a legislative organization with investigative and enforcement powers. Why and how that sharp departure from normal governmental organization in the United States came about is extremely important information and deserves discussion in any history of education in this state.

By the way, the complete absence of any mention of OEA in Ellis’ book is especially curious. The first head of the OEA, Dr. Penney Sanders, is well-known to Professor Ellis.

Sanders is also well-known to Professor Richard Day, who clearly did a lot of work to set up and MC yesterday’s forum. However, despite her extensive participation in the early days of KERA, Sanders wasn’t invited to yesterday’s get-together, not even to participate electronically. The current head of the OEA, Marcia Seiler, wasn’t present, either.

Another important face was notably and mysteriously absent at the forum. Retired Kentucky State Representative Harry Moberly – who just happens to be a former Executive Vice President for Administration at EKU (even has a building there named after him!) – was not included on any panel or even just present. Moberly ‘was there’ in the legislature from the start of KERA. He probably played a bigger role in over all education legislation post-1990 than any other single lawmaker in Frankfort. Harry tells me he was available but also was not invited to the forum. His absence yesterday is, at best, curious.

Taken together, the absence of both Sanders and Moberly at yesterday’s forum is astonishing.

Read more »

Loan paid by borrowing?

Late last night, Gov. Steve Beshear announced that the state has paid the $28 million interest payment that was due to the federal government by September 30, 2011. The state's loan has been used to pay for unemployment insurance benefits.

On one hand, Kentucky businesses dodged a big bullet. Without the commonwealth paying the interest, Kentucky businesses would have footed the penalty bill. They would have to pay roughly $400/worker, a cost totaling over $600 million.

The problem? How the money was paid. The commonwealth has again borrowed money from itself to pay the federal government. The governor took an "internal loan" to make up the difference needed for the interest pyament. While the governor has claimed budget surplus, how is it that the commonwealth continues to borrow funds from itself?

Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, questioned the governor's move: "I'm disappointed because basically what we've done in Kentucky is written a check for an account that doesn't have sufficient funds in it."

While in the short term, the problem has been addressed, how will Kentucky fare in the long run? Continuing to borrow more money we don't have doesn't seem promising to me.

NOT doing charter schools right

As Kentucky gets ready for another discussion on charter schools, we need to pay attention to what is going on in the 40 states that already have charter school laws on the books.

I recently talked here and here about one great example, Louisiana, which quickly rebuilt its Katrina-shattered school system by taking advantage of the dynamic, entrepreneurial forces that charter schools unleash. Since 2007 Louisiana moved from notably behind to notably ahead of Kentucky on ACT college entrance test results. If Louisiana’s rapid expansion of charters is not part of the reason, then we need to find out what was.

However, as we get ready to craft a charter school law, there are cautionary notes that also should inform our charter discussions. One of those cautionary notes comes from our Southern neighbor, Tennessee.

Folks in Tennessee are not happy with the restrictive way they set up approval authority for their charter schools. Right now, the only approval authority is the local school board in each district. This new Commercial Appeal (Memphis) article says that is stifling the creation of more of these dynamic, and successful, public schools. Basically, local school boards often act to preserve their business as usual turf instead of doing what is best for students.


We already have evidence of local school boards protecting their turf in Kentucky. Our new report on “Digital Learning Now!: Obstacles to Implementation in Kentucky,” talks about local school boards blocking student transfers to other districts even when the students would be much better served by those other districts. Thus, Kentucky will be better served if we craft a charter school bill that doesn’t allow selfish adult interests on local boards to stand in the way of what is best for our students.

Clerk’s failure risks ‘disenfranchisement’ of Kenton County voters

The Northern Kentucky Tea Party is taking its battle to give voters the right to dissolve a costly government agency to the court room.

A lawsuit was filed today after Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe refusal to certify a petition to place the future of the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission on the November ballot. Even after local Tea Party members found thousands found valid signatures that had been rejected, Summe refused to relent.

Tea party officials say the limitations of an “antiquated system” used by Summe “crippled the Clerk’s ability to verify the registration status of many voters because the data was not searchable by any method other than by way of correctly spelled name.”

(Read the full release here.)

Tea Party members say they found thousands of names that should have been counted – by using an up-to-date, searchable-friendly system.

“Today’s software contains new methods and technologies which didn’t exist 32 years ago,” today’s news release said. “”The clerk did not search for and identify individuals as registered voters by confirming the signatures they used according to their address if, for example, they signed the petition with a nick name rather than the full legal name under which they registered to vote.”

Had Summe used “proper procedures … the voters of Kenton County would not be facing the risk of disenfranchisement which her decision now threatens,” said Marcus Carey, the Tea Party's attorney.

This is not over ... not by a long shot.

Can anyone say: 'CONFLICT OF INTEREST?'

Lawsuit filed in response to clerk's refusal to allow voters to decide the fate of Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission


My latest Bluegrass Beacon column sent to newspapers today addresses yesterday's announcement by Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe to prohibit voters from deciding the future of the bloated Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission.

(Read more about why this costly government agency must go here.)

Summe claimed in her news release that the petition submitted by the Northern Kentucky Tea Party and the local Home Builders Association lacked enough valid signatures to be certified to place the issue on the ballot.

However, after reviewing the data used by Summe to disqualify signatures on the petition, Tea Party members today found a multitude of glaring errors.

But my sources tell me that even after being presented with the evidence of hundreds of mistakes made by her office, Summe would not relent.

As a result, plaintiffs Paul Metzger and Garth Kuhnhein filed a lawsuit, which landed in front of Summe's sister, circuit Judge Patsy Summe. While Patsy Summe immediately recused herself, the case has not yet been reassigned.

Tea party members tell me they are concerned that the circuit judge's office will drag its feet and try to prevent the tea party from meeting the state Board of Elections' Sept. 19 deadline for submitting issues for print on the November ballot.

There is also concern about undue pressure being applied by Kenton County Attorney Gary Edmondson, who is dead-set opposed to the ballot measure. According to fellow blogger Marcus Carey, who also represents the Northern Kentucky Tea Party: Many have raised questions regarding this conflict throughout the petition process including some who have claimed that they felt threatened by the police and Edmondson who spoke in terms of 'prosecution' of the signature gatherers.

Edmondson has a good reason to be opposed to the NKAPC ballot measure: One of the clients for his private practice is the NKAPC.

The clerk's sister is the judge upon whose desk the lawsuit ends up. A client of the county attorney's private law practice is the defendant.

Can anyone say: "CONFLICT OF INTEREST?"

Rand Paul on government interfering with your right to choose

If you live in a house with one of those so-called water conserving toilets or are tired of other expensive, choice-restricting government regulations that threaten you with fines and jail if you don’t go along, you’ll latch right on to this Rand Paul discussion.

Government spending doesn't create jobs

Kentucky Commissioner of Education to join federal testing oversight board

The National Assessment Governing Board has announced that Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday will join the board in October.

NAGB, as it is often called from its initials, oversees policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a very important set of federally administered tests.

Dr. Holliday’s excellent background and strong commitment to data in education should make him a very effective choice on this national organization.

Congratulations, Mr. Commissioner!

Big Labor’s making us offers we can refuse

Kentucky may rank in the top half of the country overall when it comes to the impact labor unions have
on taxpayers, but it’s mired at the bottom when it comes to policies with the greatest impact on job
creation and economic liberty.

According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s “Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index,” Kentucky offers no
protection for paycheck protection or secret ballots, or from forced unionism – which a right-to-work
law would solve , card check or Project Labor Agreements. (Speaking of right-to-work laws, the Bowling
Green Daily News continues to promote this sound policy for Kentucky.)

The purpose of the index is to: (a) inform taxpayers concerning those areas where government union
lobbyists have maximum sway over policymakers, and (b) to empower citizens to challenge these
unions’ oversized political clout.

An interactive map is included so you can gather intelligence about government employee union activity
in your state.

--Jim Waters

Ruling on retiree health care costs in Cincinnati could ripple across the nation

Calling it a “major legal and financial victory for the city of Cincinnati’s troubled pension system,” Cincinnati.com is reporting that “a Hamilton County judge ruled today that City Hall has the right to alter retirees’ health coverage to require most to absorb a higher share of the cost.”

The ruling is likely to get a lot of attention because it wades into a hugely contentious issue about vested interests of local and state governmental retirees in health care plans.

Video: Richard Innes at digital learning press conference

Earlier this week we released an exciting report outlining the effectiveness of digital learning. The report also featured a series of recommendations for overcoming roadblocks preventing the expansion of digital learning in Kentucky.

You can download the report here.

Here is the report author Richard Innes at the press conference...

Taking liberty to the airwaves: BIPPS talks digital learning on WKCT

Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes will be on Bowling Green's 930 WKCT-AM's "Drive Time" this afternoon to discuss his new report: "Digital Learning Now: Obstacles to Implementation in Kentucky."

"Drive Time" airs from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. (central). Listen here.

Innes addresses recommendations made in his report to remove obstacles preventing Kentucky students from enrolling in digital learning programs.

"The path to an education must be made easier -- not harder -- especially for our at-risk students," Innes said. "We're losing over 10,000 students from each high school class.The future of these individuals and our state demands that we keep these students in school. Digital learning is a proven path away from dropping out and toward a diploma."

The report was released earlier this week at a news conference at Conner High School in Boone County and has received significant media coverage.

It highlights the Barren Academy of Virtual and Expanded Learning (BAVEL), which, while located in southcentral Kentucky, offers high school students statewide the opportunity to obtain a totally virtual, but regular, high school diploma.