Kentucky Education Policy Blog

 Much of the news this week coming out of Texas focused on the failure of the state government to adequately invest in the energy and utility infrastructure. It is the same model that we have tracked in states like Kansas where large cuts to state services were made to keep taxes low. I could not help but thinking how obvious a failure to invest in public infrastructure manifests itself in many states that worship at the alter of the Laffer curve and supply side economics. You see it very plainly in deteriorating roads, bridge collapses, and a failed utility system during a winter storm. https://kypolicy.org/impact-of-cuts-to-public-higher-education-in-kentucky-continue-as-students-begin-classes/ But what about education. The failure to invest in P-12 and higher education will not be as immediately evident. Citizens of states that consistently fall behind and fail to invest in their human capital will not completely see this failure until it is too late. That is wh

Every year it seems that the General Assembly, motivated by a local decision in Metro Louisville, considers legislation to limit, redirect, or even reverse local control in the state's largest city.  This year it is House Bill 133 in response to the Jefferson County Board of Education passing a tax increase to modernize facilities.  In previous years, it has been everything from local tax policy to school choice and student assignment policy.   This is not just a Kentucky phenomenon.  It is a common strategy for legislators in "red" states to use (or misuse) the power of the state over "blue" cities.  Charlotte's nondiscrimination ordinance-- the infamous "bathroom" bill-- is a case in point.  In fact, red state legislatures have regularly targeted progressive policies relating to LBGTQ protections, minimum wage increases, sanctuary city designations, immigration policy, and school desegregation.   A recent article in the Washington Monthly by Da

Western Kentucky University and the Kentucky Association of School Administrators have partnered to provide KASA members a discounted tuition rate for the educational leadership doctoral program.  The WKU Ed.D. is now taking applications for the summer 2021 cohort that will focus on Leading Diverse Learners .  The closed cohort is designed for career professionals who aspire to leadership positions and are inspired to drive positive systemic change for diverse learners based on race, ethnicity, gender disability and socio-economic status.   The model is part of the Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate (CPED) targeting Practitioner Scholars investigating a problem of practice in P-12 education focusing on Leading Diverse Learners. Bridging the divide between theory and practice, the program equips students with the deep understanding and contextual experience needed to lead organizational change in P-12 education. The Leading Diverse Learners closed cohort Ed.D. brings toge

House Bill 133 is another bad deal for education.  It unfairly targets and would place limits on the ability of local boards of education to raise local funds for education. This is especially damaging at a time when the state has failed to keep the promise of fully supporting public education funding.   Since 2008 an increasing burden of education funding has fallen to the local level due to diminished state support.  For example, according to the Council for Better Education in the western Kentucky area the burden of local revenue has shifted in Bowling Green from 39 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2020, in Daviess County the shift of local funding was from 35 to 54 percent.  House bill 133 would deliver a double whammy by limiting the ability of local taxing authorities to make up for waning state support.   The current statute provides a reasonable process for communities to respond to tax levy proposals by local boards of education. The petition, in order to be certified, requir

When the Kentucky Education Reform Act was passed in 1990 it was groundbreaking legislation that set the standard for the wave of education reform in the late 20th century.  This week the Maryland General Assembly's overrode Governor Larry Hogan's veto to pass an education reform and funding package that will likely set a new standard for education reform in the 21st century.  The Blueprint for Maryland's Future is based on the recommendations of the state’s Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, paves the way for Maryland to build a public education system benchmarked to the most globally competitive education systems around the world. The Blueprint legislation is the first in the U.S. explicitly designed to enable a state’s students to match the performance of students in the countries that lead the world in performance, equity, and efficiency. It provides Maryland with a fairer funding system and an accountability system that will assure that the policie

 The Kentucky Association of School Administrators issued the following call to action today that may reflect the urgency of education funding:  “Increase SEEK base funding in HB 192, the FY22 budget. The SEEK program is the mechanism we use to fund Kentucky’s public schools. Raises for teachers and support staff, program enhancement for students, and providing adequate operational expenses for school districts are best achieved by a funding increase provided in the base SEEK program.” KASA’s legislative priority for P-12 education funding during the 2021 session of the General Assembly is:  Commit all growth in state revenues to increasing the SEEK base and restore SEEK and all other flexible focus funds (professional development, safe schools, textbooks, FR/YSC’s, etc.) to levels that provide constitutionally adequate funding to support academic improvement for all Kentucky students.   Adequate funding for elementary and secondary education is a constitutional mandate, and it is excl

In this third post about the importance of money in public education, we will examine the impetus and rationale for a comprehensive P-16 approach to education funding from the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence .  It is appropriate that such a bold plan should come from the Prichard Committee-- they played a significant role in the push for reform from the Rose decision through Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990 and the reforms to higher education in the late 1990s.  Kentucky has made impressive progress in education over the past generation.  After vaulting from near the bottom to around the middle, P-12 metrics have hit a plateau , even moving backwards in some key areas – from preschool to postsecondary – with persistent gaps for those historically underserved. These plateaus were seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, nearly one year since many students have seen the inside of a classroom, we now face learning loss like never seen before . The pandemic has laid bare

One of the most deceptive strategies of education reform over the past 20 years has been to sow doubt about the importance of school funding.  The approach has been advocated by those that do not want to increase the financial investment in public education as well as those who say the public schools are inefficient or ineffective. To sow doubt, they sold an outcomes based approach--using high-stakes standardized tests as evidence that public schools are failing.  This has been an effective mirage to bring the focus away from inputs and redirect efforts away from increased funding for schools. Authors Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire describe this "cost cutting crusade" in their aptly named book  Wolf at the School House Door  (2020). The perpetuation of this myth has led many states to slash education funding as a way to experiment with tax cuts -- with little success. The most notorious case is Kansas, where Governor Sam Brownback promised that a moderate tax cut for