Planned 25 percent hike really antagonizes hearing attendees Public Service Commission hearing rules make crowd even angrier As reported by the Kentucky Enquirer an angry, frustrated group of Northern Kentucky citizens let the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) hear how they felt about a huge, 25 percent increase in water rates loud and clear. Overall,…
It’s troublesome when legislators “puff up” the performance of Kentucky’s public schools by quoting out of date statistics, trying to make the numbers sound like the most current information available. A recent case in point – yesterday’s commentary in the Union County Advocate from State Representative John Arnold, Jr. Arnold claims that, “We have made…
Here is an interesting article about a Tea Party activist who was kicked off of a polling site in Ohio in May. That site was leased from a labor union. The Tea Partier was apparently respecting the 100 foot rule on electioneering near the polls – but still on union-owned property – when union, not…
The Roundtable meetings on charter schools and educational options went beautifully yesterday! An added highlight was a chance for the Roundtable briefing team to discuss the issues with 10 legislators in Frankfort. Rep Brad Montell (R-Shelbyville) (Partly hidden, left) briefs state legislators during the charter schools discussion in Frankfort Legislators in the picture include: Front…
Sam Corbett, the chair of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, just had an Op-Ed posted in the Courier-Journal. He talks about a self-proclaimed Prichard goal to see Kentucky rank among the top 20 states in the year 2020 for educational performance. According to Corbett, we are not far off from that goal now. He…
The state reports the good news that revenues are up in September as the economy starts a slow recovery. Of course, many local school boards already raised taxes at the maximum rate they were allowed to go without a vote by local residents. Want to bet if any of those raises get repealed if the…
There are multiple news reports here and here that the ACT, Incorporated is investigating “potentially compromised test scores” at the Perry County Central High School. Tests involved include the PLAN tests for 2009 and the ACT given in 2009 and 2010. PLAN is given to all 10th grade students in Kentucky, and all 11th graders…
In a big win for taxpayers and free competition, a restrictive “Project Labor Agreement” (PLA) has been removed from a new request for bid on the proposed Tygart Elementary School in Carter County. Formerly, in an action that amounted to a breech of free trade bidding on the school project, the Carter County School Board…
The choirmaster of the KERA Amen Chorus is at it again. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence just released its “Kentucky Schools: Achieving the Top 20 by 2020: An Update.” This little piece is a statistical cornucopia of apples and oranges comparisons. Prichard’s paper starts out by making old news sound like new. It talks…
Warns against single focus on those graduates who go on to college The Kentucky School Boards Association captured this story from yesterday’s meeting of the Kentucky Board of Education nicely. As I understand this, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday wants to insure that students who don’t go on to college but do integrate into…