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Parents and college educators are suing the the Seattle public schools over the choice of math programs in the district’s schools.

The series, “Discovering Math,” is a darling of fuzzy math types and very likely is being used somewhere in Kentucky, too.

Here is the link to the KIRO TV news article about the lawsuit with an internal link to a newscast, as well.

If you know of Kentucky schools using this program, let us know either by a comment to this blog or via e-mail.

A court decision is promised by mid-February.

– New international data shows US not making any

Recent data from “Education at a Glance 2009”, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), paints a disturbing picture about educational progress in the United States.

This OECD graph shows the comparative education levels of 55 to 64 year-olds (solid red squares) versus 25 to 34 year olds (the triangles) in OECD countries.

What sticks out right away is that while many countries have dramatic differences in the education levels of their older and younger populations, that isn’t the case in the United States. In fact, the chance that older and younger US citizens have completed an appreciable part of secondary education (not necessarily all the way to a high school diploma) is exactly the same.

Compare that to what is going on in Korea. Less than half of that nation’s older citizens have some secondary schooling, but that nation’s younger adults almost universally have some secondary education – a higher percentage, in fact, than we have in the United States.

Things look even worse when we examine the college picture.

This next graph was actually developed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from OECD data.

It shows that the postsecondary attainment between younger and older adults in the United States looks exactly like the first graph – flat. We see no improvement in the level of education in our younger adults. That has allowed a number of other countries to catch up to, and surpass us, for college educational levels.

Bottom line, other nations have figured out that education really does matter. They are moving out on that knowledge. Meanwhile, US complacency will soon see one of our major economic advantages erased as more countries like Korea start to surpass us in educational attainment.

Tip of the hat to the Prichard Blog, which made me aware of the OECD-based graph from Gates (though not the information in the first graph).

– They do charter schools right!

– Put kids first, too!

While Kentucky debated its unexciting House Bill 176 to support our application in the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) education funding competition, other states weren’t sleeping.

The Boston Globe reports Massachusetts just passed sweeping legislation for its RTTT package that makes House Bill 176 look like a joke.

As we recently reported, Massachusetts already has charter schools – great ones – but the new legislation will add still more of them.

In addition, Massachusetts has come face to face with the “adults’ interests versus students’ best interests issue” – which hamstrings us in Kentucky. The Globe says Massachusetts’ new law will, “ease the way for superintendents to dismiss inadequate teachers and alter tough-to-change workplace rules such as the length of the school day.”

Got that?

Kentucky’s milk toast bill doesn’t begin to compare. There is nothing to support teacher firings, just reassignments. There are NO provisions to alter workplace rules, either. In fact, as Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday explained when the House Education Committee heard HB 176, there really isn’t much change in the bill at all.

Now, it looks like a sense of reality may be settling in at the Kentucky Department of Education about all of this. Commissioner Holiday told the annual meeting of the Kentucky School Boards Association on Saturday that he thinks our RTTT application has only a 50 – 50 chance of approval. He is pessimistic because we didn’t enact charter schools with HB 176. He says that if we don’t get an award when the Phase 1 RTTT winners are announced, he will have to put charter schools into the mix to have any success with the Phase 2 application.

Certainly, if competition like that from Massachusetts is going to typical, and if the RTTT judging in Washington is fair, and if the feds keep to their many strong statements about favoring charter schools, then Holliday is right to worry.

After all, just consider this comment from Massachusetts’ governor Deval Patrick, “For the sake of the children, commit to get it right.”

Here in Kentucky, the best we can say is that for the sake of the adults, we didn’t commit to much of anything.

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.  Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

                                                                          -James Madison

According to the Department of Labor, ”

The July 2009 unemployment rates for young men (19.7 percent), women (17.3 percent), whites (16.4 percent), blacks (31.2 percent), Asians (16.3 percent), and Hispanics (21.7 percent) increased from a year earlier. In July 2009, 4.4 million youth were unemployed, up by nearly 1.0 million from July 2008.”

Bluegrass Institute’s free market champion and Board Chair, Kathy Gornik explains that the Chamber would do well to return to basic rules of free markets and advocate for a “minimum-wage holiday” to open the market to youth looking for jobs. This would ease the burdens of a minimum-wage for companies needing help but without the ability to bring on new, full wage hires. She explains,

It would be a lot easier to provide employment for these economically disadvantaged 18 to 24 year olds by having a “minimum-wage holiday”. The idea would be to suspend, say just for the summer, the minimum wage law just for this group. It would be interesting to see how employers would respond. My bet is that you would see a lot of $5.00/hr. jobs done the normal way, not through a special program. The employment experience would be wonderful for these kids, and it would give them the work experience they need to get their foot on the low rung of the employment ladder with a basis for moving up, rather than standing on the ground and nowhere to go. And they’d be doing it all on their own.

The root of the problem is the minimum wage law. I wish the Chamber could promote the fundamental principles that determine a successful economy rather than support programs that must band-aid the damage caused by the violation of those principles. I know it would be politically unpopular, but the truth often is. If there was a group I would hope could stand up for free trade and rights of contract (violated by minimum wage law), I would hope it would be the Chamber. Alas, I remain disappointed.

Here is what Representative Stan Lee said to the Tenth Amendment Rally last week in Frankfort.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-boeiZkzo]