There have been more than a few eyebrows raised by the Kentucky Senate’s failure (refusal?) to confirm Steve Neal, The executive director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, as a member of the Kentucky Board of Education. However, maybe that was the legally appropriate thing to do.

There aren’t a large number of restrictions on who can serve as a board member, but one of those, contained in Kentucky Revised Statute 156.040 stipulates that a board member shall:

“Not be directly or indirectly interested in the sale to the Kentucky Board of Education or the Department of Education of books, stationery, or any other property, materials, supplies, equipment, or services for which board or department funds are expended.”

As the executive of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, which represents teachers in discussions about the services they will render for the wages received, it certainly seems like Mr. Neal would have to run afoul of this provision.

Perhaps someone in the Senate agrees.

In any event, the governor isn’t fighting the senate on this development, and a new nominee is promised in the near future. Hopefully, that person won’t pose any problems with statute.

Just as Walgreens and Ford announced free market solutions for customers facing temporary financial difficulties today, federally controlled General Motors had to come along and spoil the mood.

Walgreens will give unemployed and uninsured customers limited services at no charge in their in-store health clinics. Louisville has eight such clinics. Ford will cover car payments for customers who lose their jobs.

GM is going to follow Ford’s lead, but with tax dollars.

It’s hardly fair that GM should be able to use federal money to copy Ford’s promotion.

And if silly government regulations like certificate of need and federal price-fixing of health services weren’t in the way, medical providers like Walgreens could offer more to their customers who are down on their luck because of the economy — and those who are just victimized by bad government healthcare policies.

This will warm you up for the Bluegrass Tax Liberation Day on April 18.

See you at:

Applebee’s Ball Park

207 Legends Lane

Lexington, KY 40505

Saturday, April 18, 2009

11am-2pm
rain or shine

More than a decade ago, Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman wrote in “The Case for Free Trade” that a “fallacy seldom contradicted is that exports are good, imports bad.”

One of those rare opportunities now stares you in the face. Tell the entire world you believe free trade is the best policy by signing a petition here that will be unveiled Wednesday before the G20 economic summit in London.

With the specter of protectionism rising, it’s time for Americans to take Friedman up on his suggestion offered in 1997: “We could say to the rest of the world: We cannot force you to be free. But we believe in freedom and we intend to practice it.”

President Barack Obama and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear seem to be of like mind when it comes to expanding government’s role in health insurance. A Cato Institute scholar has a better idea: getting the government to back off and encouraging health insurers to provide better coverage against the risk of getting sick.

From Investor’s Business Daily:

“Government does a mediocre and costly job of basic simple services like garbage removal; government-provided health insurance is a certain recipe for expensive, inefficient and ossified health care.”

“Government is not the only option. Markets can provide long-term, secure health insurance while enhancing choice and competition. Given the chance, they will.”

“The key innovation is “health-status insurance.” If a health shock causes your medical-insurance premiums to rise, it pays a lump-sum payment sufficient to pay the higher medical-insurance premiums. (To deter fraud, the payment goes into a special account that can only be used for medical insurance premiums.)”

“You can always purchase medical insurance with no change in out-of-pocket costs, and therefore have complete long-term health security.”

“When people have health-status insurance, medical insurers can be turned loose to freely compete, even though they will charge higher premiums to those with long-term illnesses.”

“Insurers will compete for the sickest patients, attracting them with better care rather than “cost containing” them, or denying them coverage for pre-existing conditions. Insurers will compete hard for the healthy patients too, giving us all better service at lower cost.”

The whole article is worth a read. Getting out of the way and allowing greater consumer choice is the way to enhance freedom and prosperity. We’ve given the alternate approach too many opportunities to succeed already.

The “North Area Counties of Kentucky Exposition of Science” was held on March 21, 2009, and the list of winners is now posted.

To put it mildly, the winners’ list is dominated by the Northern Kentucky parochial schools. In fact, a Catholic school won the school-level award for both junior (grade 5 to grade 8) and high school levels of the competition.

This actually is a little surprising, because some recent studies have claimed that there are no advantages for private schools.

Anyway, that urban legend has been shot full of holes by this science fair, which was open to all students in the 30 county area of Northern Kentucky.

– Finally getting the message

From our early days the Bluegrass Institute has pointed out that there is something wrong with the ratio of teachers to other staff in our schools. This graph, which shows Kentucky ranks dead last for this ratio among the 50 states and even Washington, DC, has run ever since the early days of the Bluegrass Institute’s “Ten Great Reasons for School Choice” started publication half a decade ago (See the current “Ten Great Reasons” here).

Historically, not everyone agreed with us.

For example, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence took some issue with the graph above back in 2005. See their comments and our response in the far right column of page 4 in this document where it talks about Reason No. 8.

But, times are changing. Over at the Prichard Blog, Susan Weston now raises concerns that Kentucky seems to have overstaffing problems in its public schools.

Well, this isn’t a new issue, but it is new for Prichard Committee to revise their position to agree with our long-running analysis and concerns.

So, without a doubt, our “tooth to tail” teacher to staff ratio in Kentucky’s public schools does look problematic. Even Prichard now admits that.

This needs an investigation.

In looking for a way to govern Detroit automakers to prosperity, even President Barack Obama seems to realize the influence of union wages has had a negative effect.

“What we are asking is difficult,” Obama said today. “It will require hard choices by companies. It will require unions and workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more.”

So as Kentucky moves closer to a tax raising special session, wouldn’t it make sense for us to look at the excessive costs of mandating union wages for public construction projects in the state?

– Are they worth the cost?

Around 74,000 teachers now have been certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and 32,000 teachers have been certified for more than half a decade.

The organization’s directory of teachers indicates that as of March 30, 2009 there are 1,605 active certified teachers in Kentucky, although state data implies somewhat fewer are actually working in positions where they qualify for annual incentive stipends.

Certainly, with so many teachers now certified, there should be some pretty decent data on how NBPTS teachers really perform.

And, given the initial costs of certification (at least $2,565) and the continuing extra $2,000 stipend that each certified teacher gets every year in Kentucky, which cost the state $2,464,000 in the 2007-08 school year, that evidence should conclusively show that nationally certified teachers make a big difference in the classroom.

Sadly, that isn’t the case. In fact, in a recent interview (free subscription may be required to fully access article) in the Phi Delta Kappan education journal, Suzanne M. Wilson was asked about the effects of being certified. She replied, “The effects and consequences of the NBPTS for teachers’ individual and collective work remains unclear.” Ms. Wilson went on to point out that there hasn’t been much exploration of ways to structure the careers of teachers with certification.

What makes Ms. Wilson’s rather unimpressive assessment of the situation more telling is the fact that she helped to write the NBPTS policy document that provided the framework for the organization’s standards. If anything, Ms. Wilson would be expected to paint the rosiest picture possible.

With an up front cost to date of over $4 million to nationally certify Kentucky’s 1,605 NBPTS teachers and with continuing annual costs of almost $2.5 million, it seems time to ask if the taxpayer might deserve a better bang for his bucks.

The legislative session has ended, and Senate Bill 1 (SB-1), which drops the CATS assessments, is now law.

Next, activity to implement the nuts and bolts of the bill shifts to the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).

The first chance these two groups will have to work SB-1 will come on April 1 and 2 at the next meeting of the Kentucky Board of Education.

However, if the agenda for the meeting is any indication, there doesn’t seem to be much planned to begin extensive work required by SB-1.

That’s not a good idea, because SB-1 has some fast action requirements that need to be worked right away.

For example, the new legislation requires the KDE to begin a comprehensive process of reviewing academic standards in all the CATS areas within 30 days of the bill’s enactment. That process has to be coordinated with the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Certainly, the KBE will want to know what is going on in this effort, as the standards are the very heart of any good accountability system.

In addition, the KBE is required to revise the administration code for the assessments to outlaw inappropriate test preparation activities. This revision must include disciplinary actions to be taken for infractions, which are always difficult to develop. SB-1 says this regulatory update must happen within 60 days of the effective date of the bill, which I assume occurred when Gov. Beshear signed it last week.

Anyway, the only item in the KBE agenda that seems related to SB-1 is a generic reference to a review of “2009 Elementary and secondary legislation (attachment under separate cover).” This single event comes on day two of the board meeting, so if board members want to consider anything for later discussion, those discussions would have to come at a later board meeting.

I would suggest that the initial discussion of SB-1 needs to be moved forward to day one of the board’s meeting so an initial follow-up can occur on day two. Setting up anything in this state’s regulatory system in 60 days is difficult, at best, so the test practice rule revision work needs to start ASAP. Furthermore, the board might want to pass on some guidance to the KDE as it starts the standards review process. Having an extra day to work up that guidance would probably be a smart move, as well.