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– Meanwhile, Kentucky’s reporting founders

Oregon just announced improved high school graduation rate reporting next year.

Once that starts, an Oregon Department of Education spokesperson admitted the state’s high school dropout rate will probably rise dramatically, but Oregon is clearly intent on joining other states like California that are getting honest about this important information.

Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, we are supposedly years away from a similarly accurate system. In fact, the computer program needed to generate high quality graduation rates is having all sorts of problems.

The state is even dragging its heels on adopting a better short term estimation formula for graduation rates called the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate, not promising that for two more years although it looks like we have all the data needed to calculate it already.

Say what you will about KERA overall, when it comes to area of accurate reporting about graduations, other states are leaving us in the dust.

Gov. Steve Beshear has announced a special session of the General Assembly will convene June 15. Several Republican Senate members I spoke to this afternoon said no agreements about revenues, spending cuts, or hot-button issues like casino gambling have been reached.

Cook up some popcorn for this one. Should be quite a show.

Susan Pace Hamill of University of Alabama School of Law put out a report on state and local public policy which lists Kentucky as one of the “Shameful Sixteen” states. She claims that our taxing and spending policies hurt poor people and “violate the moral principles of Judeo-Christian ethics.”

Read the report here.

Hamill’s grand solution, of course, is higher income taxes and more spending on public schools. Should be a popular read for Kentucky’s big-government advocates.

In the latest edition of liberty’s lovers and losers: A national newspaper changes its mind about school choice, expanded gambling is viewed as a bailout for playing wrong cards in the past and Louisville’s mayor wisely uses his veto pen. Click here to read the entire column.

Jim Waters, Bluegrass Institute director of policy and communications, will appear on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight” on Monday at 8 p.m. (EST) to address the possibility of a special legislative session. Waters will be joined in his call for more responsible tax-and-spending policies by Andy Hightower, executive director of the Kentucky Club for Growth. Watch the program hosted by Bill Goodman live on KET1 on Monday at 8 p.m. (eastern). It will be replayed Wednesday at 2 a.m. (eastern). During the live Monday broadcast, viewers with questions and comments participate by e-mail at kytonight@ket.org. Other panelists include Dana Beasley-Brown of the Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and Mary Ann Blankenship of the Kentucky Education Association, the state teachers union.

Lexington attorney Kent Masterson Brown went to Washington D.C. last Friday for a hearing in a very important case. If he wins, Americans will be able to opt out of Medicare.

This case continues quietly as most of our elected officials on the national level are trying to force all Americans onto “free” government insurance.