This new report from Greg Forster and Christian D’Andrea analyzes responses to an annual survey run by the US Department of Education. Some of the findings are remarkable. For example: – “Private school teachers are much more likely to say they will continue teaching as long as they are able (62 percent v. 44 percent),…
Kentucky has spent much of the last three decades blowing up our public employee benefits plan, creating a $30 billion-and-growing unfunded liability. Illinois’s Gov. Pat Quinn wants to spend the next three decades doing the same in the name of saving money.Quinn’s move is really just a much bigger bite of the apple Kentucky has…
I blogged yesterday on the new formula the Kentucky Department of Education is going to use to calculate high school graduation rates. It is similar to a formula called the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate which was developed some time ago by the US Department of Education. There are actually data available to calculate the AFGR…
Jay P. Greene points out strong editorial support for the Washington D.C. school voucher program, which really is surprising.The rest of his post is here. At least until Kentucky taxpayers can get some evidence their tax dollars are being spent efficiently in schools, students and parents here would do well to learn more about school…
– Kentucky to Get Better High School Graduation Rates The Kentucky Department of Education just released the public school Nonacademic Report for 1993 to 2008, and there is a surprise in Appendix B where it talks about planned improvements in the way the state reports graduation rates. At present, as discussed in Appendix B, the…
Congressional Democrats have been talking about a federal guarantee for state and local government bonded debt for a while now. Unfortunately for taxpayers, that plan just isn’t moving along fast enough.Given that borrowing in the municipal market is Kentucky’s preferred method of overspending, our politicians will surely be on board with this fiscally irresponsible plan…
Gov. Steve Beshear is never going to get his act straight on Kentucky’s Davis-Bacon requirements if he gets his news from The Louisville Courier Journal. Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson deserves credit for his veto of an ordinance requiring union wages for certain city construction projects. A similar move on the state level would save us…
Speaking on WHAS 840 AM in Louisville this morning, Gov. Steve Beshear dismissed a question about repealing prevailing wage requirements. Overspending on taxpayer-paid wages based on political connections simply can’t be justified in the middle of an overspending crisis. As we await official revenue forecasts due out next week, now is exactly the right time…
The Louisville Courier Journal on Monday trumpeted the arrival of two dozen auto workers from Michigan, calling them “economic refugees.” Policymakers here would do well to ignore the cheerleading and, instead, focus on strategies for growth that might keep more of our own people from seeking economic refuge elsewhere. Really, if doling out economic development…
– Even housing location doesn’t work! In one of the most dramatic examples yet of how governmental bureaucracy can ride rough shod over parent’s school preferences, the Courier-Journal reports the new student assignment plan in Jefferson County Public Schools is generating hundreds of angry parents. Some of the individual stories are truly shocking. In a…