Here's Something You Don't See Everyday

I consider myself something of a radical moderate politically, so I'm always reading stuff from both sides of the aisle. As I scan Kentucky's blogs, 'bout every day, I always catch Page One Kentucky (on the left) and the Bluegrass Institute (on the right). I can generally count on them to disagree, so I'm not quite sure what to think about their take on yesterday's news.

Has love come to the Commonwealth?

This from Jacob Payne at Page One Kentucky:

New Ed Commish Just Picked: The least embarrassing candidate was picked to head Kentucky schools, it seems. Terry Holliday was just named commissioner.... Here’s hoping he doesn’t throw money around like Jon Draud. And that he does right by Kentucky. Based on everything we’ve heard about him - despite not being a Kentuckian - we just may be in good hands. And he just might be worth that $225K salary.

From Jake, this is high praise, indeed.

Then I saw this...from Dick Innes at the Bluegrass Policy Blog:

Holliday brings some impressive accomplishments to the job...

I talked about Holliday with a newspaper staffer who serves the Iredell-Statesville school district area in North Carolina about a week ago. About the only complaints against Holliday seem to be from some teachers who claim Holliday made them work harder...As a North Carolina educator, he is intimately familiar with value added assessment programs. That is what we needed, but never got, from our now disbanded CATS assessments. As we rework CATS, Holliday’s background could be of inestimable value to that process.

This time, our Kentucky Board of Education might just have got it right. We look forward to meeting Dr. Holliday and watching what he can do for Kentucky.