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Without charter schools, Kentucky is once again set up to miss out on Race to the Top funding.

The Obama administration announced today that it will release a third round of RttT cash. Kentucky and eight other states are eligible to compete for a $10 million to $50 million slice each of the third round’s $200 million pie — much smaller than the first two phases totaling $4.35 billion.

But state education officials are questioning whether to participate, since the results will likely be the same again. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported today that Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross said: “If charters remain a key requirement in the third round, it might not be beneficial for Kentucky to apply.”

Probably not, considering every single one of the other eligible states —
Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina — allow charter schools.

States that won RttT funding in the first two rounds also allow charter schools: Delaware ($100 million), Florida ($700 million), Georgia ($400 million), Hawaii ($75 million), Maryland ($250 million), Massachusetts ($250 million), New York ($700 million), North Carolina ($400 million), Ohio ($400 million), Rhode Island ($75 million) and Tennessee ($500 million).

Whatever gave it away that Kentucky would probably not get additional funding since it still doesn’t allow charter schools within its borders?

Whatever gave it away? Whatever could it be?

Superintendent Sheldon Berman clueless

The latest audit of a Persistently Low-Achieving School is out. This time the Knight Middle School from Jefferson County is in the spotlight, and the glare is pretty harsh. A few comments from the Audit:

• “The principal and school council have not demonstrated leadership that provides guidance and engages stakeholders within the school to meet challenges of struggling students in reading and math that address goals of No Child Left Behind.”

• “The principal has not fostered a culture of mutual respect between all staff members and students.” (My added comment: this is a guaranteed recipe for student failure. It fosters student violence and staff apathy)

• “The principal and school council have not established an organizational structure that promotes high student achievement and staff performance.”

• “The principal has not engaged all stakeholders in decision making to develop a common ownership in the success of all students.”

As recently happened with the audit for Newport High School in Newport Kentucky the audit team is recommending that both the school’s principal and School Based Decision Making (SBDM) authority at the school need to be transferred. Given the comments above, the auditors really had no other choice.

Now, here’s the really sad part. Jefferson County Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman told the Courier-Journal:

“I was surprised at the deficiencies in how negative the audit was about leadership.”

Surprised? How can that possibly be?

Clearly, either the audit is totally fouled up, or Berman has not been paying attention.

Berman, of course, is on the way out. If the Jefferson County Board of Education wants to do the right thing in hiring his replacement, they need to spend some time looking over the audits for their Low-Achieving Schools. In fact, the board might want to invite members of the audit team to brief on what good schools look like. That way, the board can ask intelligent questions of the new superintendent applicants to see if those applicants know what a good school really looks like and how to not be surprised when a school isn’t measuring up.

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) on Thursday, May 26, on “Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio.”

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show’s call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It’s informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

“The education here in Jefferson County Public Schools does not prepare large numbers of students to even graduate from high school, let alone get them ready for higher education.

“While I certainly don’t blame it all on the school system, the system of busing students for ‘diversity’ has been and continues to be a colossal failure.

“Family members who want to be involved in their student’s education and activities often cannot because of limitations and access to transportation between home, school and activity locations.” –Mary L. Irwin, Letter to the Editor, (Louisville) Courier-Journal, May 24, 2011

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, will talk Kentucky issues at 6:30 pm (EDT) on Thursday, May 26, on “Kentuckiana GrassRoots Radio.”

Listen in to this blog talk radio program, which is co-hosted by Clint Hardy, Matt Singleton and David Caldwell, by clicking here.

The show’s call-in number is (347) 637-3086. Plan to call in with your questions and comments. It’s informal, interesting and entertaining radio.

It is not a secret that Kentucky’s pension system is in serious crisis.  Read more about this here.

We will no doubt be hearing more about this in years to come in Kentucky. In fact, don’t be surprised if this issue is dominant in upcoming legislative sessions and election debates.

With that in mind, here is a simple and informative article that lays out some of the important language, terms, and concepts associated with pensions in Kentucky. This is a great primer for a basic understanding of the pension problem!