CPE seeking interim chief too, search stalls

STATE BUDGET DIRECTOR CALLED POSSIBLE INTERIM

Brad Cowgill, the state Budget Director and Iron Man of the Fletcher Administration, told the Herald-Leader he was called by Council on Postsecondary Education chairman John Turner yesterday and asked to consider an interim presidency with CPE that would run until April 2008. Cowgill told Turner that he was willing to discuss it...

...Turner, of Lebanon, confirmed that he talked with Cowgill but emphasized that three other people are under consideration and that he had not talked with them yet...

...Council member Walter Baker of Glasgow, a former state legislator for 22 years, said he feared the trouble in both searches may indicate that the state's interest in education reform is waning.

"I suspect we've lost the kind of commitment and determination we had in 1990 with KERA (Kentucky Education Reform Act) and in 1997 with House Bill 1," which mandated reform of the postsecondary education system.

Baker, one of only three Republican state senators who voted for KERA, said he was disappointed that the council had not found a new president.

"I've been very disappointed with the quality of the people brought to us" for consideration, he said. "It should attract the best and brightest in higher education in this nation."

Like the Kentucky Board of Education, CPE is hitting the reset button on their search for a new leader.

This from the Herald-Leader.
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Coincidently, I had lunch with Brad Cowgill the other day at a UK seminar on value-added assessment. After catching up on family (Brad and Margaret's children attended Cassidy School when I was there) we spent the whole time talking about Kentucky's schools and colleges.

I'm have no particular insight into the CPE, and I suspect he would be a big loss to the Fletcher administration, but I do know something of his integrity and character, and on that score he has my complete respect. I know he would ask the right questions, listen and consider options and would be listened to - on both sides of the aisle.

Like the PreK-12 system - the CPE has a world-class mission but a below average state effort.