The Bluegrass Institute questions how Kentucky can be chosen as a finalist in the competition for a piece of the Obama administration’s education stimulus $4.35 billion funding pie — especially since the commonwealth’s recent Race to the Top application was submitted without charter schools or the intensity of innovation needed to bring about real reform…
So the battle rages on in Lexington regarding the UK area housing situation. The LFUCG planning committee met to discuss the language of a city ordinance this past week. On the agenda is to refine what the term “family” means in an attempt to regulate how property owners in Lexington can manage their own property.…
This is a great discussion by Milton Friedman about how bad laws make criminals out of those who seek to do things that are socially advantageous. He uses a great illustration about smugglers (and I imagine that he is talking about Han Solo and Chewbacca…okay, maybe not…) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3dmmofn18]
Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday has ruled that the status quo will remain in the Knox County – Corbin Independent Schools fight over cancellation of the long-standing student transfer agreement. All students currently attending schools out of district can continue to do so for another full school term. Meanwhile, the districts have been directed…
Jaime Escalante, the hero of the 1998 factually-based film “Stand and Deliver,” is fighting cancer according to Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews. Escalante is the famous teacher who took inner city Hispanics and showed the world that they could indeed master calculus if they had a teacher who knew his stuff and cared. Teachers around…
But, will we get any money? Just before the Senate Education Committee meeting started today, all sorts of key education types started running up to Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, excitedly congratulating him on getting Kentucky to the finals in the Race to the Top federal education funding sweepstakes. It is exciting for our educators.…
Should government be the engine that propels or a rudder that guides? This is the central question about the role of government that we use to frame public policy. We want to know what you think! What is the role of government in our lives? Is the government an engine or rudder in 2010? What…
The National Association of State Boards of Education reports those Common Core standards Kentucky made such a big fanfare about adopting a week ago are going out for yet another draft review on March 8, 2010. The review period will run three weeks, which will make it very challenging for a final document to be…
The new PLAN scores for Kentucky’s 10th grade students that released last week have a little good news and a lot of very cautionary news. The good news is that our white students’ average score in English now exceeds the PLAN “Benchmark” score that represents good odds that the students will pass their first college…
E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee’s Form I-9 to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. Clear all the smoke, rhetoric and good intentions. And find a big, comfortable chair if you are going to wade through the final rule. An…