Today at 1 p.m., Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters will be discussing the Bluegrass Institute’s new pension report on WVLK’s ‘Kruser and Krew.’ Be sure totune in and hear proposed free-market solutions that include making Kentucky’s public pension system transparent and eliminating the part-time politicians’ pension system. “Future Shock Solutions: 16 steps to treat Kentucky’s…
(Ditto for your school’s SBDM members) In a huge, multi-page article the Kentucky Enquirer reported yesterday about the difficulty that parents in Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio encounter when they try to contact their local school board members. Phyllis Sparks, a Boone County parent, made the general case: “Boards are always crying out loud that…
Over the weekend the Courier-Journal ran an article with more evidence of teachers’ union interference with the expensive effort to turn around some of Jefferson County Public Schools’ (JCPS) Persistently Low-Achieving Schools (PLA). After first pointing out that PLAs in a number of areas around the state are making progress, the Louisville paper then points…
In the aftermath of several shocking audits that found school superintendents in some systems such as the Dayton Independent School District improperly received significant and unauthorized extra payments well above any agreed to contract figures, the Kentucky Department of Education has announced it is creating an on line repository for every school superintendent’s contract, salary…
The test cheating scandals involving teachers and other school staff in the Atlanta school system have now progressed to the point where three-dozen school staffers have been indicted. Kentucky had its own test cheating scandal on the state-run ACT testing program in Perry County several years ago. Several staff members received suspensions on their teaching…
Governing.com reports that Kentucky’s local government leaders “are far less impressed” than Gov. Steve Beshear with Senate Bill 2 (which did so little we can’t, in good conscience, call it “reform”) passed last week by the Kentucky General Assembly. Beshear called it “a good solution.” Good, perhaps, for the next political campaign, but not for Kentucky’s…
WFPL reports the Louisville Tea Party is pushing charter schools, a saner busing policy and more fiscal accountability in the school system – all items the Bluegrass Institute has supported for some time. The word about the need is getting out!
By Lowell Reese The soaring cost of public employee pensions in Kentucky has become a major societal issue. The debate is about more than the security of a retirement livelihood for public servants. The standard of living of all Kentuckians is at stake. Diverting money from essential government services, such as education and public safety,…
And, when will they ever get on the same page? If students’ lives were not being ruined by the controversy, some of the nonsense coming from Thursday’s Leadership West Louisville lunch forum about the educational genocide in that city’s schools would be hilarious. During the meeting, while talking about what is needed to turn Louisville’s…
Due to the troubling rate of improvement in a large number of Persistently Low-Achieving Schools (PLAs) found in Jefferson County’s public schools, the entire school district has been under a microscope for some time. Concerns really started to ratchet up after the Kentucky Board of Education was told on February 6, 2013 that the worst…