Kentucky Education Policy Blog

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 ...

 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 mand...

 Exactly a year ago, Governor Beshear and members of the General Assembly were beginning the work on what was billed as an "education first" budget.  Unfortunately, the pandemic interfered with the budget process and Kentucky-- like all other states-- went into fiscal survival mode.  Flash forward one year, the Governor and legislature have an opportunity-- despite the continuation of the pandemic-- to move forward with a budget that focuses on adequate funding of public schools.  While both the Governor and Republican controlled legislature will be touting education as a priority in this budget session, it is worth closely examining what an "education first" budget really means.  To really understand, we need to explore the debate about the idea that money really matters in education.  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 adv...

As we look ahead to the upcoming session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the issue of teacher pensions has started to make news again.  The headlines alone have caused many educators to nervously contemplate how they will get through another pension struggle on top of the stresses of COVID, the challenges of virtual learning and the threat of potential student learning loss.   The debate over teacher pensions in 2018 led to widespread protests, teacher walkouts and a significant political pushback that led to the election of Democratic Governor Andy Beshear in red-Kentucky the following year.   The question is whether the GOP, with a comfortable veto-proof majority in the legislature, will approach the topic any differently given the lessons of 2018-2019.    We got a glimpse of that this past week.  Rep. Ed Massey (R) from Boone County has emerged as a voice of reason for Republicans on this issue.  Massey has been working on a bill that wi...