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– But, there is some help

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that astonishingly small numbers of students from the inner city “core,” including Covington and Newport, Kentucky, are ready for college.

Only 11 percent of urban “core” kids tested out of remedial requirements at Northern Kentucky’s Gateway Community and Technical College.

The good news for those going to Gateway is that the school does have a solid remedial program. For example, Gateway President Ed Hughes tells me his school actually offers three different levels of remedial math – each starting at a progressively lower level of rigor – in an attempt to recover kids’ futures.

Hughes says that if kids stay with Gateway’s remedial program, their success rate in going on to graduate is better than the rate for kids who enter without any remedial need indications.

That shows these kids can be educated – it’s just that the public school system isn’t getting the job done – especially for urban core kids.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that while our CATS assessments are officially dead, a group of die-hard CATS fans are going to publish their own CATS-like rating of our schools.

Let’s talk about how silly that is.

Our legislators took a hard look at things like our high college remediation rates and poor performance on federal writing, math and reading tests.

They then decided the CATS assessment aimed our teachers in the wrong direction.

The legislature unanimously voted for changes.

And, because the CATS’ aim was clearly faulty, legislators decided to relieve our teachers from its burden as much as possible while we develop a better set of education standards and a new test. That way, teachers can start to benefit right away from the latest developments in instructional research.

But, facts never stopped die-hard CATS fans before. Now, those CATS fans would continue the myth and continue aiming our teachers in the wrong direction.

Yup, that seems about par for Kentucky’s public school educational experience. Never mind the facts, even if they indicate you are aiming at your own foot. Fire away, anyway. And, if kids continue to get bad instruction as a consequence, well, that’s not really important.

Reports are coming in from all over the country about state and local governments cutting back on holiday celebration expenditures such as July 4th fireworks and Christmas lights.

Beautiful!

The shame of it is that it took so long. So many years of wasteful spending practices, debt build up, tax increases, and creative financing before we started questioning why we need to spend money we don’t have for public holdiday celebrations.

Kentucky governments at every level should embrace a new austerity by making a point of cutting way back on expenditures for holiday observances. And then keep it that way.

Enjoying the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come will be so much sweeter when it no longer means going further into hock.

TaxAnalysts.com has picked up on the possibility of Kentucky eliminating the taxation of income for a more transparent sales tax.

Given that the alternative proposed reform is Rep. Jim Wayne’s massive tax increases, we can only hope someone who is more concerned about taxpayers than building big government can get the attention of Gov. Steve Beshear, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, and Senate President David Williams.

Someone might point out to them that our neighboring states seem to be getting with the program, which makes it that much more important that we don’t fool around too much longer.

People who don’t have the legal right to protect themselves by possessing a firearm may not value that freedom until it is too late. Similarly, it is difficult for us to understand that those who don’t live where they can speak freely or come and go as they please may not even fully comprehend something we take for granted.

Just such a disconnect shows up every time an application for funding of school choice options is denied in a state that has opened the door to school choice options. North Carolina has. In Kentucky, though, we can’t really relate to the disappointment felt by reading a story like this:

The only people in Kentucky who know what this feels like are those who pay extra for private school or home school. The rest of us have grown accustomed to being manipulated by state education officials.

Thanks to Michael Moore at the John Locke Foundation for pointing out the article.

Gov. Steve Beshear kicked off his big cardboard check tour today in Richmond with $1,268,933 for the city to buy up dilapidated houses and sell or rent them to low income families. In all, he will deliver $37.4 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Fund grants to local governments to manipulate housing markets.

Beshear said the money will “benefit communities by returning vacant lots to productive use while providing new opportunities for homeownership to deserving families.”

A press release from the Governor’s Office said: “Once the city has purchased and made any necessary repairs to foreclosed homes, families with a household income not exceeding 120 percent of the area median income may buy or, in some cases, rent the home at a reduced rate.”

Good thing we’re using that money to make politicians look good and to expand government functions rather than paying down any of our massive debt.