Our opposition to the Beshear administration’s decision to give tax incentives to ‘The Ark Encounter’ in Northern Kentucky has nothing to do with the religious content of the planned theme park. Instead, it’s about an economic development approach that results in government picking economic “winners” and competitors placed at a distinct disadvantage.
Click here to read the latest Bluegrass Beacon.
The editors at USA Today are also upset about the new PISA international test results.
The title of their article says it all:
“Our view on education: ‘We’re No. 15!’ doesn’t cut it in today’s global economy”
What is really curious about this editorial is that it supposedly lists an “Opposing View.”
Except, the opposing view doesn’t seem to be much happier about the low rankings.
The final summation is worth echoing:
“Three successive U.S. presidents have committed massive efforts to improve education. Unless those involved start embracing reforms instead of resisting them, the next international rankings, due in 2013, are likely to show the U.S. even further behind.”
Teachers unions, especially in Louisville, are you listening?
Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications, told WKYX NewsTalk 94.3 morning show host Greg Dunker today that KERA helped solve serious funding and nepotism problems in Kentucky’s school districts.
Waters was on the show to talk about the Bluegrass Institute’s new report analyzing the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), the commonwealth’s nationally acclaimed reform.
The report, “KERA@20: Lessons learned,” was released in conjunction with the reform policy’s 20th anniversary. While there has been some academic progress, when the costs of KERA are factored in, research indicates that each point gained on the credible national tests now have a higher price tag than ever.
While the report is a look back, it’s also meant to influence the future direction of Kentucky’s education policy as the state prepares to implement a new testing system next year.
Waters said this would be the right time also for education policymakers to get rid of KERA’s failed management system for local schools –known as School-Based Decision-Making Councils.
KERA was signed into law by the late Gov. Wallace Wilkinson in 1990, who – at the time – called it “the most important piece of legislation since the signing of the (Kentucky) constitution.”
Click here to hear more of the interview.
This from “Views on the News” from Teachers College at Columbia University:
“The United States made an unimpressive showing on a global comparison of academic achievement among 15-year olds, touching off a fresh round of self-criticism by education reformers, policymakers and pundits, who declared that the results of the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) are evidence that the nation continues to lose ground as a global education and economic leader.”
Following this sobering assessment, the educators at Columbia try to soften the impact. I guess they don’t get it because manufacturing isn’t a big deal around New York City any more, a place which lost a lot of its manufacturing industry years ago.
But, for states like Kentucky, where manufacturing is still important (Bet you didn’t know we still produce something like 40 percent of all aluminum in the US and 30 percent of the country’s stainless steel – per comments at this week’s Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Policy Convention), this is serious stuff.
Just look at the “Made in China,” made in “South Korea,” “Made in Japan,” etc. labels that predominate in our stores today.
And, those labels don’t just appear on low-tech items. If you open up a lot of electronic devices, you will find the microchips come from places like tiny Singapore, a country where kids positively “whup” ours on those international math and science tests.
A new report shows the Jefferson County Public Schools’ teachers’ union contract has many problems and is well behind current policy in more progressive school districts in Kentucky.
According to the recently approved “Analysis of Collective Bargaining Agreements in Kentucky Districts,” Jefferson County’s union contract:
• Is the most “cumbersome”
• “Strongly dictates the process for staffing schools in the district,” unlike other district agreements
• Unlike the other eight district contracts, remains “seniority driven”
• Constrains principals and school councils from retaining quality, newly hired teachers, allowing senior teachers to bump new hires with a “paper transfer” even if no opening is available at the school
• Might run afoul of Kentucky statutes
• Uses dubiously administered “Memorandums of Agreement” that might hide important contract modifications between the superintendent and the union from the visibility of school board members who are supposed to approve the document
• Prohibits using student performance data as part of the evaluation process for teachers
Staffing is key
Most of the eight other Kentucky districts with union contracts used to have similar staffing restrictions, but the new report from the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) says all the other districts have moved on in the past decade to more progressive staff management agreements with their unions.
Under those much better agreements, superintendents, principals and school councils face far less interference in teacher hiring and placement due to outdated seniority rules. The OEA reports that administrators in districts that have dropped contractual seniority transfer guarantees find the current process to fill teacher vacancies to be far superior to past policy.
In stark contrast, contractual interference resulted in Jefferson County doing a terrible job in re-staffing its Persistently Low-Achieving Schools. Many of the new teachers in those schools are brand new and inexperienced. That is a recipe for continued failure that can be laid firmly at the feet of the uncaring union leadership in Jefferson County.
There is a lot more of important information in the new OEA report – especially regarding more problems in Jefferson County. The report was approved last Tuesday by the Kentucky Legislature’s Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee but still has not been released in the Legislative Research Commission’s web site. I’ll let you know as soon as it is.
”Unions in 1946 called more strikes than in any other year in American history, and that fall voters elected a Republican Congress. The 80th Congress proceeded to abolish wartime rationing and wage and price controls, enact a record tax cut and pass the Taft-Hartley Act, limiting the power of labor unions.” –Michael Barone, columnist
