…the main message of this story resides in the subsurface — the attitude of the General Assembly…demonstrated by flat-out greed and disrespect for the public treasury, which now has put the standard of living of all Kentuckians in jeopardy.

You don’t want to miss this report (to be released in early June) as it outlines the steps in how Kentucky legislators sweetened their pensions at the expense of taxpayers.

It was an important move to bring Kentucky in line with current policy in virtually every other state in the country, where using readers on reading tests is almost universally not permitted.

The December change would also help solve a very disturbing problem. Kentucky’s out of line reading policy creates nation-leading exclusion rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessments. Kentucky actually led the nation for NAEP exclusion in 2011, leading to charges that NAEP reading scores for Kentucky are invalid.

Now, WFPL reports the Kentucky Board of Education is backpedaling (can you say caving?) on its December decision in response to pressure from some parents of learning disabled kids and special education teachers.

That is really sad. While there are always a few special cases, in general reading kids the reading tests just creates ‘feel good’ scores while hiding the fact that these students are actually getting substandard reading instruction (if they are getting any reading instruction what so ever).

I cannot see how reading the state’s reading assessments to large numbers of special education students does anything other than relieving schools from pressure to try to teach these special kids to read. It’s a free ride for educators and a potential disaster for students.

The sad and unintended consequence is that many of these students will arrive at adulthood largely illiterate. They very likely will be unable to find honest employment and probably will add to Kentucky’s already overflowing prison population.

In fact, before the state board votes to do the wrong thing, I’d like them to find out how many of our younger prison inmates were carried through KERA era schools with the reading accommodation. I think that information might open up a lot of eyes to what is really going on here.

There, representatives from the Bluegrass Institute met with numerous state legislators and corporate executives to discuss the Intrastate Coal and Use Act, a bill that would reiterate a state’s 10th Amendment rights to regulate its own internal commerce. Specifically, the bill would allow Kentuckians – not the unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency – to weigh the costs and benefits of Kentucky coal when the coal is mined, sold, and used exclusively within the borders of the Commonwealth.

Among the crowd of around 150 dignitaries in the Energy, Environmental, and Agricultural Task Force were Duke Energy, which serves a portion of northeastern Kentucky, as well as State Rep. Tom Lockhart of Wyoming, the state with the most recoverable coal reserves in the nation.

The Bluegrass Institute had the unenviable privilege of informing the task force of the dangers the EPA poses to Kentucky and the Appalachian region in general if its out-of-control mandates continue to cost Kentuckians jobs and industry.

The Institute’s participation in the ALEC Task Force Meeting is a testament to the growing influence the Institute is having in the energy policy debate, and a sign that Kentuckians are passionate about state sovereignty over their energy sector.

‘Ungraded Primary’ did away with the traditional school configuration of Kindergarten through the third grade. Instead, early learners were supposed to be grouped according to their performance in each academic area. Students would be regrouped as necessary during the first four years of their school experience. Students would not be promoted to regular configuration fourth grade classrooms until they were ready to do the work expected at that level.

Of course, like many education fad theories in KERA, ‘Ungraded Primary’ didn’t work. Thus, this controversial program is mostly observed in the breach today. Kentucky’s early learners now are largely assembled into a rather traditional K to 3 sort of system. There is even rampant social promotion to the fourth grade (although the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results for Kentucky’s fourth grade students show that only about one in three of the state’s students are proficient in reading and mathematics).

The interesting thing, however, is ‘Ungraded Primary’ is still required by Kentucky law. While local districts have wide latitude in how they implement the multi-age part of the policy (or not), other features of Primary are still the law.

Consider the contents of Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 158.031.

Paragraph (1) of this law says:

“In this section, “primary school program” means that part of the elementary school program in which children are enrolled from the time they begin school until they are ready to enter the fourth grade. Notwithstanding any statute to the contrary, successful completion of the primary school program shall be a prerequisite for a child’s entrance into fourth grade.”

In other words, if a child isn’t ready for the fourth grade, that child should not be sent to the fourth grade. Period. It’s a “prerequisite.”

Why is there even a question about whether or not Fayette County should START doing what the law already requires?

And, why did the Kentucky Department of Education say they didn’t have a policy about holding students back? Paragraph (2) of the same statute says:

“The Kentucky Board of Education shall establish, by administrative regulation, methods of verifying successful completion of the primary school program in carrying out the goals of education as described in KRS 158.6451.”

In fact, there is such a regulation, 704 KAR 3:440.

Section 3, Paragraph (2) of that regulation says in part:

“Each elementary school shall design the primary school program to address the learning needs of all children who meet the entry age for the primary school program and who are not ready to enter the fourth grade.”

Clearly, existing law and regulation in Kentucky are consistent. Kids who are not ready for the fourth grade should not be promoted to that grade until they are ready.

So, why does Fayette County even need to think about stopping social promotion? It looks to me like every school in the state is already legally required to do so.

In the past few years, Kentucky has taken some steps toward strengthening transparency. Unfortunately, as we have seen in recent weeks, these steps are not enough.

Positive steps such as publishing legislators’ votes online, the establishment of a spending transparency site by the governor’s office and several legislative efforts to force openness in spending across all three branches of government are worthy accomplishments, but the battle is not over.

State Auditor Adam Edelen’s recent investigation of former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer’s office revealed a culture of waste and entitlement on the taxpayer’s dime.

The problem is that we found out about this wasteful spending years after the fact. The damage has already been done. Edelen’s audit is proof that the transparency battle must continue.

Wasteful spending and abuse of power can be prevented with proactive, real-time, electronic self-disclosure of activities within a state agency. After all, if we want accountability for our state officials, transparency is the first step.

Logan Morford
Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions
Lexington

The Kentucky Club for Growth recently posted a piece about the voting record of Kentucky Senator Damon Thayer. The blog contained stats about his voting history on tax issues including raw vote numbers and a percentage representation of how his votes aligned with the missions of the Kentucky Club for Growth.

Pretty neat that an organization has the ability to do that and chances are you don’t have the time to do it yourself. What makes this access and display of information possible? Transparency. In this case, specifically the transparent voting records of state legislators.

Transparency is being put to good use in Kentucky – lets have some more!

That is how much it will cost an in-state undergraduate student to attend the University of Kentucky for a single year after this most recent 6 percent increase in tuition approved by the school’s Board of Trustees. This is not a new trend. In fact, according to a recent Lexington Herald-Leader article by Linda Blackford, tuition has increased by 147% over the past decade.

I don’t pretend to know the details about running a university as large as Kentucky, the cash flow involved with that type of operation, or the unforeseen costs they may prepare for. One thing I can say for certain is that the University of Kentucky recently took actions that will ensure these types of increases far into the future.

What did they do? Well, earlier this year they ensured that an upcoming student housing development would be subject to prevailing wage costs, needlessly driving up the cost of the project $60 million or more. You can bet that this cost will be passed on to the student. Cutting expenses and not participating in wasteful practices like prevailing wage could reduce the need for tuition increases, making it easier for Kentucky’s families to send their children to the leading research university in the state.

Some don’t see this trend in increased costs as a huge problem:

“I don’t see any super burden on individuals,” said Jim Stuckert, a past chairman and CEO of Hilliard Lyons, a wealth-management firm.

Do Kentucky’s families see it differently?

“Coal is not only a vital national resource, but coal mining also supports thousands of Kentucky families. These arbitrary changes in EPA guidelines cause unnecessary and costly delays in permitting, which compromise jobs and investments. It’s time for the EPA to end these unpredictable policy swings and work with us on a reasonable policy that protects our families.”

-Gov. Beshear to President Obama during his September 2011 visit 

Map from Page 1 in 2011 NAEP Science Report Card

As a consequence, the national average for the “all students” score got a point closer to Kentucky between 2009 and 2011.

In the report, Innes comments on the discrepancy in science scores between Kentucky and the rest of the nation. While many states have put less emphasis on science in the classroom:

“Kentucky didn’t do that,” said Innes. “We kept on with science in our assessment program, which told our schools, science is important and we don’t want you to forget to teach it,” he said.

Despite Kentucky’s above-average science scores, Innes reminds readers that one must compare apples to apples when making judgements on student performance. See here for more on this important issue from Dick Innes.