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Recently, Karl Rove’s organization Crossroads set up a site called Wikiaccountability.org.  The site is designed to be a collaborative website that collects information from Freedom of Information Act requests.  This is a great tool and will go a long way toward helping force transparency and accountability in the federal government! But wait…does this concept sound familiar?

In 2008, The Bluegrass Institute launched FreedomKentucky.org – a collaborative and innovative database designed to host hard to find information about issues important to Kentuckians.  Over the past couple of years the site has become one of the largest databases of education transparency information.

The past two years have seen FreedomKentucky.org transition into hosting more information related to open records requests.  In 2010 and 2011, Operation Open Records saw hundreds of records requests submitted and responded to.  The requests and results were posted so that anyone could see the process!

“Rewarding Failure” was a result of these requests.

Wikiaccountability.org and FreedomKentucky.org are important to transparency and accountability efforts! Go check them out!

In an April 1, 2011 story that, while factual, may be a horrible April Fools joke on the students in Jefferson County, the Courier-Journal reports:

“JCPS restaffing at 3 failing schools draws renewed warning from Kentucky education chief.”

Very simply, the Kentucky Commissioner of Education is warning the Jefferson County Schools that the way they have restaffed their Persistently Low-Achieving Schools may violate state law and federal requirements.

And, now, the district has done this more than once, meaning the old “we didn’t’ understand” excuse no longer works.

The Commissioner is threatening to withhold millions of dollars if the district does not clean up its act.

This is the latest in a string of charges of impropriety in the operation of the “Restaffing Option” under House Bill 176 from the 2010 Regular Legislative Session (HB-176). The new report adds to charges in a report from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission’s Office of Education Accountability (OEA) approved in December that the district violated provisions in HB-176 that prevent union involvement in the restaffing program (find the approval draft of that OEA report here – the final version has not been released).

The OEA’s report charges that a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was cut between the union and the school district that allowed the union to interfere with the restaffing program. On page 40 of its report, the OEA charges:

“While the statute clearly stipulates that ‘professionally negotiated contracts by a local board of education shall not take precedence over the requirements’ associated with the option selected, JCPS and JCTA entered into an MOA as to how the restaffing would take place.”

Thus, both the Legislative Research Commission and the Kentucky Department of Education now are charging that Louisville’s school system is in violation of state and federal laws and regulations concerning operations in the Persistently Low-Achieving Schools.

One thing is certain. The OEA report shows that a substantial number of the teachers eventually placed in the district’s low-achieving schools are highly inexperienced, with a notable number in their very first year as teachers. That is definitely not in the best interests of students in those schools.

Today, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan released his 2012 budget proposal–“The Path to Prosperity.” Ryan’s proposal outlines a path to cut spending significantly. He also takes on entitlement reform. Economists and commentators have already begun to debate the plan–some on the right arguing that his budget does not go far enough and others on the left concerned with the size of his proposed cuts.

One reform in particular could be significant for the commonwealth. Ryan proposes a block grant for Medicaid. The block grant would cap the amount of federal aid states receive, and in turn, states would gain greater flexibility to run their individual Medicaid programs without oversight by the federal government.

For a state like Kentucky, Medicaid budgetary problems are not a secret, as we watched in this year’s legislative session. The Bluegrass Institute has argued that increased federal funding will only hurt the state and will not solve our economic crisis.

When states limit federal funding and gain greater control, they have the opportunity to create and manage sustainable programs. Rhode Island has already proven this with its Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver. The waiver capped spending, gave the state greater flexibility, saved the state over $100 million and even led to a budget surplus in the midst of the recession.

The debate for the 2012 budget is far from over, but a block grant for Kentucky’s Medicaid program could make a substantial impact.

When Mother Jones magazine asked the Arkansas governor’s office for records generated during Mike Huckabee’s tenure, the response they got was, well, not encouraging …

[New governor Mike] Beebe’s chief legal counsel, Tim Gauger, replied in a letter that “former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been ‘cleaned’ and physically destroyed.”

He added, “In short, our office does not possess, does not have access to, and is not the custodian of any of the records you seek.”

Thankfully, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives harvests a great deal of data from the governor’s office before he/she leaves office, so Kentuckians needn’t worry too much about this kind of thing happening. But it’s an object lesson in what can happen when one branch of government is able to effectively hide its own performance record from citizens.

Gov. Beshear keeps saying he has “saved” Kentucky taxpayers $1 billion during his administration.

Yet, as Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, points out in an op-ed published today by the Lexington Herald-Leader: “projected savings does not mean realized savings. After all, a big difference exists between cutting spending from a proposed budget and actually spending less money.

“Proposed cuts offer spinmeisters the political benefit of appearing fiscally prudent. Actual cutting results in pain — and possibly lost votes — stemming from making tough decisions.

“But that’s why we pay elected officials like Beshear the big bucks. Isn’t it?”

Unlike state government, Kentucky families who have had to cut back to make ends meet know a real spending cut when they see one. If Frankfort had to live within its means the way hardworking, taxpaying citizens do, the commonwealth would likely be in the “black” instead of continuing to dig the hole of debt deeper by the day.

The Bluegrass Institute’s recent commentary “Rewarding Failure” took a look at how many superintendent evaluations in Kentucky are rubber-stamped and essentially meaningless.  You can read the full report here.