Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being published by newspapers statewide. The following column was originally released on June 11, 2020. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity,” Albert Einstein said. Whether we see – and seize – the available opportunities during…
“The scandals just keep coming,” the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Linda Blackford wrote in a column about charter-school management companies last year. However, Blackford’s outrage seems selective. She attacks scandals caused by some ethically shaky firms entrusted to manage charter schools charged with providing parents looking for options with quality educational alternatives while conveniently ignoring similar financial…
“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,” Will Rogers advised. That wisdom seems particularly relevant as the big spenders in charge of Congress clamor to deepen the hole of America’s debt with a vote-buying package thinly disguised as another economic-stimulus parcel. Usually, such deepening of holes is accompanied by a lessening of perspective.…
Leftists who dominate Jefferson County Public Schools’ (JCPS) Board of Education desire a huge tax increase amidst a health pandemic wreaking sudden destruction on a once-roaring economy, locking down the commonwealth and throwing thousands out of work and into the realm of uncertainty about how they’re even going to pay their current tax bill –…
An economic crisis such as the one dragging behind this quarantine like a heavy, unbreakable chain squeezes an entire state, revealing or magnifying the true condition of its economy along with the competency – or lack thereof – of its political leadership. Some causation for Kentucky’s increasingly dire economic woes unquestionably correlates with the onset…
Gov. Andy Beshear missed a golden opportunity to demonstrate that he’s personally walking the COVID-19 walk as well as talking the talk concerning the need for Kentuckians to hunker down at home and the commonwealth to shut down its economy with the exception of what he deems “essential” services. Instead of responding immediately to an…
Our nation was founded on the unique principle that individuals acting in their own self-interest will overcome the greatest of challenges while keeping government power in check. Adhering to this principle is especially critical during times of crises when government tends to gain momentum from the circumstances of the day to increase its control and…
It’s heartening to hear Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., take a stand against using COVID-19 relief dollars to bail out public pension systems in states – including the commonwealth he represents – which have failed to enact long-needed reforms. States’ pension woes, after all, have nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic and therefore…
A quasi-government group’s response to Gov. Andy Beshear’s signature of legislation creating a separate board for the County Employees Retirement System (CERS) – which covers local government workers and classified school personnel – illustrates the wrong-headed mindset at the heart of all of Kentucky pension woes. “House Bill 484 creates a nine-member CERS Board of…
We’re reminded during COVID-19 that the beauty of this un-commonwealth isn’t limited to its majestic mountains, picturesque horse farms and flowing rivers. The threat posed by the coronavirus to our commonwealth’s social and economic fabric is being answered with unselfish acts of kindness on full display against a backdrop of the generosity and big-heartedness which…