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  • Why Kentucky needs school choice

    A recent Tweet from a teacher (provided with that teacher’s permission) provides insight into how Kentucky’s kids can lose out without school choice. Here a charter school provides a second chance to students in another state when traditional schools don’t meet needs. In Kentucky, many students in a similar situation with reading (or another subject) have no such alternative available and will likely finish their school career with significant gaps in their education. Shouldn’t Kentucky’s students enjoy the benefits of school choice that students in the vast majority of other states already enjoy?

  • Bluegrass Institute releases policy brief on ‘Safer Kentucky Act’

    For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 Contact: Jim Waters @ (270) 320-4376 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free market think tank, today released a policy brief summarizing and analyzing House Bill 5, the “Safer Kentucky Act” currently being debated in the Kentucky General Assembly. The omnibus legislation, as introduced, covers many different areas, including fentanyl, firearms, protecting law enforcement, juveniles, offender re-entry, homelessness, charitable bail organizations, intimidating participants in the legal process and punishing violent crime generally. “Legal experts say this legislation, in its introduced form, expands the reach of the Kentucky criminal code in a variety of ways,” noted Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters. “It creates new offenses, broadens elements, raises offense levels, increases sentences, reduces sentencing discretion, and restricts opportunities for early release.” A summary and analysis of each part of the bill is contained in the Bluegrass Institute’s publication, “The Safer Kentucky Act: A Summary and Analysis,” which is offered as informational tool. “Our concern amongst the discussion and debate of this legislation is that policymakers and their constituents – as well as all stakeholders – know what the bill actually says, how it will change penalties and, in some cases, create new crimes,” Waters added. For more information, please contact Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com or 270.320.4376 (cell). Thank you for helping us offer bold solutions to Kentucky’s greatest challenges with your gift here.

  • Quote of the Day – PLUS What you’re not being told about standardized tests

    “We now have evidence that standardized tests in fact may help — not hurt — students from low-income families and underrepresented minority groups get into and persist in college. The latest research shows that not only are test scores as predictive or even more predictive than high school grades of college performance, they are also strong predictors of post-college outcomes.” Yoon Choi, in “OPINION: Standardized tests can be great predictors of college success and should not be seen as a cause of inequity,” The Hechinger Report, January 23, 2024 The PLUS First, this shocker comes from the far from conservative The Hechinger Report. This is a real sea state change from the usual line of reasoning about tests like the SAT and ACT being seen in most of the liberal media. Second, the article is based on a report from Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based group. That same university dropped the SAT as an admissions requirement until at least 2026. Now, an on-campus group is making some startling comments. Opportunity Insight’s recent short paper also says: Finding #1: Students with higher SAT/ACT scores are more likely to have higher college GPAs than their peers with lower scores Finding #2: High school GPA does a poor job of predicting academic success in college Finding #3: Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds who have comparable SAT/ACT scores receive similar grades in college Summarizing that: “We conclude that standardized test scores may have more value for admissions processes than previously understood in the literature, especially for highly selective colleges.” In yet another shocker, Opportunity Insights says: “…test scores may be helpful for highly selective colleges to create more upward mobility by prioritizing admissions for academically prepared students from a broader range of backgrounds (Underline added for emphasis).” To be sure, this is only the result of work by one group. But the comments go so far against much of what parents and policymakers are being told that the subject deserves a lot more scrutiny. And, it’s noteworthy that a group located at Harvard is convinced enough by its research to take a position very different from the school’s official policy. Maybe – once again – stuff we’ve heard from a lot of educators just isn’t right, either (think Whole Language Reading, New Math, “drill and kill,” and more, for other examples).

  • BIPPS on 'Ky Tonight': Education freedom on Monday's agenda

    Join Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters for tomorrow night’s panel discussion of school choice and other education issues on Kentucky Educational Television’s “Kentucky Tonight,” an award-winning statewide public affairs program hosted by Renee Shaw at 8 pm EST. Joining President Waters on the panel will be Heather LeMire, Kentucky State Director of Americans for Prosperity; Eddie Campbell, head of the state teachers union (the Kentucky Education Associaton); and Brigitte Blom, president and CEO of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. Watch the hour-long show live on KET and at www.ket.org/live. Viewers with questions and comments may send e-mail to kytonight@ket.org or use the message form at www.ket.org/kytonight. Viewers may also submit questions and comments on Twitter @ket, #kytonight or on KET's Facebook page. Plan to call in during the program with your comments and questions at 1-800-494-7605. ‘Kentucky Tonight’ programs are archived online, made available via podcast, and rebroadcast on KET, KET KY and radio. Help the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions continue to advance educational freedom for all Kentucky families! Join us!

  • Bluegrass Institute analysis of K-12 spending: Less bang for billions of Kentucky taxpayers’ bucks

    For Immediate Release: Monday, February 12, 2024 Contact: Jim Waters @ (270) 320-4376 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – This June marks the 35th anniversary of the Kentucky Supreme Court’s famous Rose V. Council for Better Education, which determined that the commonwealth failed to abide by Section 183 of the state’s constitution requiring the legislature to “provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State.” “Trends in ‘Bang for the Buck’ in Kentucky’s K-12: The Productivity of Funding in Developing Basic Skills and Its Change Over Time,” a new policy point released today by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank, indicates a decline in the efficiency of the state’s education system since the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) was enacted by the legislature in 1990 as a response to the Rose decision. The study, which calculates fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math test scores per $1,000 of per pupil funds – adjusted for inflation to offer an accurate portrayal of K-12 spending over decades – finds a nearly-continuous decline in the taxpayers’ bang for the billions of bucks in funding for public education since KERA was adopted as Kentucky’s education policy. “These declines are due almost entirely to the large funding increases that have occurred relative to the small changes in test scores,” writes author John Garen, Ph.D., in the report’s summary. “This suggests a large deterioration in the effectiveness of K-12 funding.” Garen is BB&T Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Kentucky and a member of the Bluegrass Institute Board of Scholars. Among the report’s findings: · Productivity in 2022 ranged from 47% to 64% of the 1990s level, depending on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test used. · The decline in productivity has been almost continuously downward from the 1990s to 2022. The exception is the period just after the Great Recession (2009-2013).  Some increases in productivity occurred then, but were driven primarily by the temporary drop in funding. · Overall, the decline in productivity suggests a marked deterioration of the effectiveness of funding in translating into basic skills test performance. “This data-driven analysis adds to the growing mountain of evidence that while Kentucky is spending more than ever of its budget pie on public education, it’s drifting farther than ever from its constitutional mandate of providing an efficiently effective system that serves students and taxpayers well,” said Bluegrass President Jim Waters. “It also confirms what reformers have said for decades: more money does not automatically result in a better education system.” “More alternatives, greater accountability and expanding education freedom are needed in order for Kentucky to meet its constitutional duty to its students and taxpayers,” Waters added. For more information, please contact author John Garen at jgaren1953@gmail.com or Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com or 270.320.4376 (cell).

  • BIPPS president makes the case for choice, transparency in KET debate

    New policy brief points to lack of bang for billions of education bucks Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters recently participated in a debate on KET’s ‘Kentucky Tonight’ about education spending, transparency, performance and choice. Waters was joined by Heather LeMire, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Kentucky, in making the case for education freedom in the commonwealth. Opponents of education choice and freedom on the program are: Brigitte Blom, president and CEO of The Prichard Committee, and Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association (a teachers union). Waters challenged the myths being perpetrated by opponents of giving parents, including the assertion giving families the same type of educational alternatives available in a majority of other states will be harmful to a state’s public education system. He noted that other states, including Florida, have spurred improvement in their K-12 academic performance while increasing the options available to parents in both the public and nonpublic education spheres. “This isn’t about destroying public education,” Waters said. “This is about improving it.” Watch the entire hour-long debate here: https://bit.ly/3I1HvXr. And, check out the Bluegrass Institute’s latest policy release here, which examines the bang (or lack thereof) taxpayers receive from the billions of K-12 bucks spent in Kentucky each year.

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