C-J Jumps on Board.

Calls for New Search

Rejects Finalist's "rehearsed naiveté"

This one has all the fixin's.

I did a little digging into the public record of the finalists for superintendent in Jefferson County this afternoon. Getting caught up a little. Vetting-lite.  

In the meantime, another group has joined the NAACP in calling for a fresh search. And this group is actually an arm of city government, somehow.

Then comes the Courier.

The Courier-Journal opposed Berman's non-renewal from the start. (KSN&C - not so much. ...still ticked off by some misinformation we got from him one day.)

If I get this right, C-J thinks the finalists' ideas on the student assignment plan are insufficient following Sheldon Berman whose plan was "imperfect...well-intentioned and was firmly committed to diversity." ...which is pretty much what one might say about the finalists. Faint praise for Berman? In any case, the record casts some doubt.

I like C-J's strong commitment to a diverse school system. And C-J is correct to be concerned that there are folks who would like to resegregate along some line or another. Public school ought to be a place where all kids get to play.

With regard to the Meredith case, it has seemed pretty clear that the JCPS Board would be held to a high level of scrutiny in C-J's court of public opinion. So when Superman did not appear among the finalists, well....

This from the Courier-Journal

Editorial: Board fails to find sound candidate;

search must resume

The debacle that began one chilly night last November, when the Jefferson County Board of Education narrowly voted not to renew Superintendent Sheldon Berman's contract, has come to a crisis point with the selection of two woefully inadequate finalists to replace him.

This outcome should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this dysfunctional, divided board at work. But the possible consequence — appointment of a candidate who cannot even comment effectively about the most significant issue facing our schools, the student assignment plan — is unacceptable. Selecting a superintendent at this moment in history — when the JCPS assignment plan is under assault and when some of its schools have been labeled “failures” by the state — is the biggest choice to face Louisville in a long time. To get this wrong could mean that our children, and all the rest of us, will pay a terrible price.

Stakes are high

Why are the stakes so high? To begin with, the desegregation of local schools has been perhaps the most difficult and important challenge this community has faced in the past 60 years. Some people literally bled to effect change; opponents of desegregation rioted in the streets, but, in time, the student assignment plan became accepted, even popular, with most local parents and pupils.

Indeed, surveys have consistently shown that the public schools here — which attract an amazing 80 percent of eligible families — are highly regarded in part because people understand the critical importance of diversity to create high achievers and to make our children competitive in a global economy. And the assignment plan is vital in a city like Louisville, which has one of the most segregated housing patterns in the nation and a sordid history of racial discrimination and inequity.

A few years ago, Justice Stephen Breyer characterized the case that overturned Louisville's race-based assignment plan (written by the conservative point man Chief Justice John Roberts) as the worst thing he had seen come through the Court in his tenure. Sadly, this is now the law of the land, and ways must be found to continue to achieve the goals without using race as the basis for assignment.

Dr. Berman's plan, while imperfect, was well-intentioned and was firmly committed to diversity. A national expert in school integration is on contract with the district to propose ways to make the assignment plan more effective.

Plan in jeopardy

But make no mistake about it: There are forces at work that want to jettison the plan entirely and revert to a neighborhood-school assignment scheme. In a city like Louisville, the result would be an unacceptable pattern of re-segregated schools. Anyone who argues otherwise, or denies it, is dishonest and cruel.

After Dr. Berman was fired last fall, the board went to work on finding a replacement, and immediately began stubbing its toe. The proceedings were secretive from the start; the names of serious candidates weren't released, and the board never effectively communicated to the people of this community what it was looking for in a new leader.

Even the search firm hired to screen candidates seemed unaware of some of the deep divisions and problems that existed in the system and between the board and the superintendent.

The two finalists ultimately chosen — Christine Johns, who heads a 30,000-student district in a mostly white suburb of Detroit, and Donna Hargens, deputy and former acting chief of the schools in Raleigh, N.C. — came to town last week and met with the public, the school board and other community representatives.

The finalists demonstrated a kind of rehearsed naiveté about the district and the issues it faces. In meetings with this newspaper's editorial board (which you can watch at courier-journal.com/opinion), they proved to be either ignorant or deceitful about their knowledge of the student assignment plan that they would be expected to implement. There was a Stepford quality about their responses to questions about what they thought a plan should contain.

Dr. Hargens, in particular, tap-danced around such critical topics as commitment to desegregation, neighborhood schools and the history of the district. No person in a position to take on such an important job could honestly come to town as a finalist and have so few opinions. Or have so little concrete to say.

However, both candidates showed a remarkable lack of commitment to lead rather than to merely implement the policies of this dysfunctional school board. This district needs a visionary and dynamic leader, not a disingenuous yes-person.

Reopen the search

The board does not have a good choice to make between the two, and the search should be reopened, but this time in a much more transparent, straightforward manner.

It's time for the community to stand together to deliver this message. In earlier years, when challenges faced our public schools' assignment plans, strong and vigorous support from the business community was vital. But where are business leaders now? The silence is deafening. And where are religious and civic leaders of good conscience? Mayor Fischer needs to take a stronger stand in the interest of the entire city. The NAACP has been speaking out vigorously, and has taken principled stands throughout the Berman debacle and again last week. But what of other civil rights leaders?

Where are their voices? Where are yours?

On Tuesday, the school board is going to make its plans for the next step in the selection process. This crisis has reached a boiling point, and those who remain silent will share the blame for what could result from a disastrous decision about JCPS leadership.

Call your elected board member, or send him or her an email. Show up Tuesday at the school board to protest its continued secrecy and lack of responsiveness.

Now's the time. It may not come again for a long while.

Frankfort disgrace

This from the Courier-Journal:

Before the General Assembly adjourned Thursday, the House and Senate were brimming with lawmakers. Yesterday, the chambers were empty. The reduction in brainpower and political courage was nil.

In a disgraceful failure, the legislature was unable to reach compromise and pass a two-year state budget. That's the most important job the legislature has, and it had 60 working days in which to do it. Now Gov. Steve Beshear must call lawmakers back to Frankfort for a special session to pass a budget. That will cost $60,000 a day. If a budget isn't enacted by June 1, it could prevent the state from saving tens of millions of dollars by refinancing bonds in June.

Yes, this has happened before. The 2002 and 2004 sessions failed to pass budgets, too, and new fiscal years began under executive spending plans — the first by Gov. Paul Patton, the second by Gov. Ernie Fletcher. But since then, the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that a governor lacks the power even to make emergency appropriations, so a severe curtailment of state services would likely take place July 1 if no budget was in place.

It's all as unnecessary as it is grotesque.

Senate President David Williams and his lieutenants may be right that accepting the House leadership's offer of a one-year continuation budget would have run the risk of heaping particularly draconian cuts into the second year of an eventual biennial budget.

But the Senate decision followed its refusal to accept House measures to raise about $275 million through a business tax adjustment and accelerated collection of the state sales tax. Mr. Williams and crew called those steps tax increases — a finding that raises the politics of reflexively opposing all tax hikes to the level of an obsession — and made clear that even deep cuts in areas such as education and Medicaid would be preferable. How that kind of thinking best serves the long-term needs of the people of Kentucky — as opposed, say, to the short-range interests of the Republican Party — remains a mystery.

Of course, there was a better plan all along — Gov. Beshear's initial proposal to raise about $780 million through expanded gambling. But Sen. Williams — deaf to the pleas of some in his own GOP caucus and to leaders of the horse industry, many of whom are Republicans — wouldn't hear of it, and the House declined to take action without assurances that the Senate would also vote on the measure.

So there you have it. There's no budget, no blueprint for making needed cuts, no means to raise new revenue, no relief for the state's beleaguered horse industry.

But legislators can now get down to doing the one thing that really matters to them — running for re-election.

C-J Smacks Holliday; H-L Channels KSN&C; Obama not the First; WH to release text; Other reactions

This from the Courier-Journal:

A bad decision

In our hyper-heated political times, this inspirational talk is being turned into a major controversy, with some parents demanding that their children not be subjected to the President's message.

How sad it is that we have come to the point in this country where the President of all the people cannot talk to children about taking responsibility and working hard. Could the outrageous demonstrations of hate and prevarication that have dominated health care forums this summer now move to the schoolroom?

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday has knuckled under to parental requests and told school officials that they must provide alternative activities for children of the objectors. This isn't just sad; it's outrageous.

The President of the United States — be he Barack Obama, Dwight Eisenhower or Theodore Roosevelt — ought to be able to speak words of encouragement to young people without being subject to parental censorship. Have we become so splintered in this nation that we can't unite over something as fundamental as the subject Mr. Obama will discuss? We hope Mr. Holliday has the good sense to reverse this bad decision.

This from the Herald-Leader:

Message from the president

The president of the United States will urge the nation's youth to work hard in school, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.

Unless you're getting a paycheck from the Republican Party or for trashing Barack Obama, there's no reason to see anything sinister about this.

If anything, Obama should be thanked for using his bully pulpit and popularity with youth to communicate the value of education and persistence.

The right-wing backlash speaks volumes about Obama's detractors. The ranters are wound up after a season of red-faced anger, lies about health care and guns displayed at public events.

They go beyond the pale, though, by saying the nation's children need protection from our president's words.

What do they fear? That in a 15-minute speech Obama can hypnotize the nation's youth into forgetting everything their parents ever taught them and ... what? Do their homework?

It's especially repugnant that Kentucky Republican Party chairman Steve Robertson uses imagery associated with pedophilia — "circumvent parents . . . gain direct access to our children . . . creepy" — to demonize Obama. Robertson plays on the fear of black men, an old and ugly racial stereotype, and he should be ashamed...

Susan weighs in at Prichard:

The president and the children

I wish President Reagan had thought of an annual opening message and every president since had followed his example. It is not just an opportunity for a president can give voice to our shared national respect for education. It's an opportunity for the students to experience our shared national respect for the leaders chosen through our democratic process, including those for whom we (or our parents) did not vote.

Turns out...Reagan did. So we should shine a little light on this from PolitiFact:

Barack Obama is not the first president to address school children.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged the nation's principals to allow their students to watch a Sept. 8 address on the importance of education from President Barack Obama...

We rated that claim Pants on Fire! ...

President George H.W. Bush gave an address to schools nationwide in 1991, from a junior high school in Washington, D.C. News reports from the time said the White House hoped that the address would be shown at schools nationwide, and Bush began his remarks by saying he was talking to "millions" of students "in classrooms all across the country."

You can read Bush's complete remarks via the Web site of his presidential library...

You may have guessed this already, but news reports from the time indicate that Democrats criticized Bush for giving the speech.

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Rep. Richard Gephardt, then the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives."And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'" ...

Republicans, though, defended the right of the president to address students. "Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?" asked Newt Gingrich, who was then the House Republican whip. "It was done at a nonpolitical site and was beamed to a nonpolitical audience. . . . They wanted to reach the maximum audience with the maximum effect to improve education." ...

We also found that Ronald Reagan took questions from high school students at the White House in 1986, and the question-and-answer session was broadcast nationally.

Reagan urged the students to stay in school and say no to drugs, but he also discussed overtly political matters, such as national defense funding, nuclear disarmament and -- in suprising policy detail -- taxes. (Read Reagan's complete remarks.)

This from Politics K-12:

Flap Continues: Rep. John Kline Asks Obama to Release His Remarks

Rep. John Kline, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, sent a letter to the White House asking President Barack Obama to publicly release the text of his back-to-school address to kids, to be delivered next week. (According to this Washington Post story, Obama already had planned to do just that). UPDATE: And indeed, the White House said today that the text of the speech will be available on Monday at whitehouse.gov.

As you may know, some Texas districts have expressed qualms about letting kids listen, because of language in one of the lesson plans accompanying the speech that gave students suggestions for how they could "help" the president, prompting claims that the speech would politically indoctrinate kids...

And this from Justin at EdJurist:

The President's Speech to Students and the Craziness that Ensued

Okay ... approaching the edge of sanity today with the public outcry against the President's upcoming address to students returning to school. This whole thing, the politicization of this event by some, makes me a little sick to my stomach....the common trend I am seeing from administrators today is to a) either don't interrupt the schedule for it, or b) allow students to opt out. I am seeing some administrators on the various listservs I belong to requiring their students to see it - and I commend them for it - but they are the exception. The safe route here is to permit students to opt out. In fact, the new Commissioner here in KY has said that schools need to "provide alternatives." So, as long as you are providing an alternative (hello, study hall) to students or parents that are on the edge of the deep end, then you school administrators should be fine.

This, too, shall pass.

There was plenty of reaction in letters section of the Herald-Leader as well.

This from Jeff Worley in H-L:

Incited perhaps by WLAP 630-AM's conservative talk-jock Leland Conway, who called such a direct address to students "creepy," 25 to 50 parents phoned the Fayette County school district to complain about the president's noontime Tuesday speech to their kids. What are these parents afraid of?

Kentucky GOP chief Steve Robertson knows: The talk is an effort by Obama "to circumvent parents" and "gain direct access to our children."

Yes. Can't you just hear the president now (in a sonorous, hypnotic tone): "Now you kids be sure when you go home tonight to tell your mommies and daddies to support Uncle Obama's health-care plan, OK?"

Fueled by unfounded fear, parents who refuse to allow their kids to view this presidential talk are depriving their children of an exciting, unique and historical event.

This from Dave Woods:

Please tell me that the reporter incorrectly quoted Steve Robertson, Kentucky GOP chair, in the Thursday article regarding President Barack Obama's speech to the nation's children.

Having been an educator for 30-plus years in Kentucky, I am starting to realize why some children come to school with unfounded fears, prejudice and a reluctance to think thoughts other than what has been said to them by authoritative figures in their young lives.

"Kind of scary," an effort "to circumvent parents," and "gain direct access to our children" are statements that frighten me in relation to the president of the United States speaking to children.

Please have Robertson announce the candidates he is endorsing so I can vote for the opponents!

And from Tom Ringley:

So, it appears that the official Republican talking-points word for President Barack Obama's address to schoolchildren is "creepy."

You have to hand it to them. Republicans may despise every good and decent thing this country has ever stood for, but they have the best message discipline of anyone since the American Communist Party of the 1930s and 1940s.

And Dan Wu knows satire:

I couldn't agree more with Steve Robertson of the state GOP and talk-show host Leland Conway. An adult speaking directly to children without their parents present is very creepy. This is why I attend school everyday with my daughter; that way she's never alone with other adults trying to educate her.

As for the content of President Barack Obama's speech, I happen to have a copy of the agenda right here so parents can decide if they want their kids exposed to it.

Barack Hussein Obama will begin the broadcast with a reading from the Koran, followed by a visual lesson on gay marriage using two Ken dolls. Then he will decree a ban on slingshots and water guns then institute a tax on milk and Tater Tots. He will then conclude with a singalong to the socialist anthem The Internationale.

As you can see, conservatives' fears are well founded, as always.

Apologies for the fonts. I used Firefox on this post. It's a lot easier than IE is some ways but I'm having real difficulty controlling the font sizes.

Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word

It should be expected that JCPS board chair Debbie Wesslund thinks that Louisville schools are special. But so special that they are not bound by the same Attorney General's Opinion as the rest of the school districts in the state?

She argues that the possibility of critical comments being made is the same as the actual disciplining of the superintendent - thus justifying a closed meeting - even though her own superintendent thought the whole experience was positive. If Superintendent Sheldon Berman was disciplined, he didn't know it.

I can certainly think of many reasons why a district would want to operate in confidence. A public meeting in a place like Jefferson County (or anyplace, really) could become very difficult to manage - what with the public clamouring for accountability over the Max Gilpin tragedy. Perhaps 1000 disgruntled union teachers would want to add a grumbling voice to their recent survey. Surely there are a few hundred parents who might want to spend an evening expressing their displeasure over not getting their child into the school they wanted.

But on the law? This looks like a winner for the Courier to this casual observer.

This from Toni Konz at C-J:

JCPS board defends closed session on Berman

JCPS says opinion isn't binding

The chairwoman of the Jefferson County school board said Thursday that board members did nothing wrong when they evaluated Superintendent Sheldon Berman in a closed session in June, despite a state attorney general's opinion that such evaluations should be public.

After The Courier-Journal filed a complaint Monday about the closed-session evaluation, Debbie Wesslund issued a letter saying the attorney general's opinion "is not binding on the Jefferson County Board of Education."

The board "complied with (the attorney general's opinion) and the Kentucky Open Meetings Act, since there was reason to believe that there would be discussions conducted by the board that might have led to discipline of the superintendent," Wesslund wrote.

Jon Fleischaker, an attorney representing The Courier-Journal, said Thursday that the newspaper will file an appeal with Attorney General Jack Conway.

"We do not believe it is adequate to say that certain things might come up (during the closed session)," Fleischaker said. "They have to have more than a slim possibility that something could come up in order to go into closed session."

The newspaper's complaint stems from the June 29 closed meeting, in which board members discussed Berman's job performance during the past year as part of his annual evaluation. Following the session, the board issued a public statement commending Berman.

In a telephone interview Thursday night, Wesslund said that the board "did not discipline (Berman) on any specific issues."

"We pointed out areas of improvement," she said. "There was a possibility of discipline because there are seven board members and we each have different
opinions."

Berman said Thursday he thought his evaluation was positive. He also said he was "not aware of any consideration of discipline."...

C-J Challenges JCPS Closed Session on Berman

I can understand why a district would want to defy the Attorney General's Opinion that a superintendent's evaluation must be held in public. But the argument that criticism is the same thing as discipline still seems to violate the opinion.

An AG's opinion has the force of law until overridden by a court or the legislature.

Surely, superintendents will seek a new law to take this issue out of the AG's hands.

This from C-J:

JCPS meeting about Berman might be illegal

Board evaluation held in private

A closed-door meeting conducted last week by the Jefferson County Board of Education to evaluate Superintendent Sheldon Berman may have violated a state attorney general's opinion requiring that such evaluations be done in public.

The Courier-Journal filed a formal complaint Monday with board Chairwoman Debbie Wesslund about the June 29 closed meeting, in which board members discussed Berman's job performance over the past year.

After the closed session, the board issued a public statement commending Berman.

Jeremy Rogers, a lawyer for the newspaper, said that, depending on the board's response, the newspaper could pursue the complaint with the attorney general's office...

Conduct Open Search for Ed Chief

Take a lesson from botched job in 2007

To update the KSN&C record, I had a couple of versions of the same letter in the Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal today.

Ed Commish Search Story updated: here and here.

Warning: The Herald-Leader story carries a photo of a rabid chipmunk! Allowing small children to view such photos could cause bad dreams and emotional distress.

C-J Smacks Berman Over Gilpin Stonewalling

This from C-J:

Truth's back seat

Without putting too fine a point on it, more than nine months have elapsed since Pleasure Ridge Park High School sophomore Max Gilpin died after collapsing at football practice. That is more than enough time for Jefferson County Public Schools to have given birth to its investigative report into the teenager's tragic death.

An investigation conducted by Louisville Metro police for the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney's office started around the same time last year. It was finished in November, and the 2,000-page report was made public in March. The school district said it would take four to six weeks to "digest" the findings.

Somebody hand them the Pepto, because they're still "digesting" three months later.

More than that, they're fighting attempts to force them to turn over their findings to other parties involved in several lawsuits brought since Max Gilpin's death...

... the district seems to have lost sight of the bigger picture: A child died on their watch. The public deserves to know what happened without further delay.

As it is, their maneuvering is like stonewalling...

Superintendent Sheldon Berman took a valedictory lap for the school year in a guest column in Sunday's Forum section, but he did not mention this investigation in that piece. It was a glaring omission. He must correct that, and address public concerns, by talking to the public now about why the district's investigation into Max Gilpin's death has taken longer than the ones that pinpointed the destruction of shuttle orbiters and astronauts' lives. And then he and the district must cooperate with law enforcement.

Today is day 299 since Max Gilpin was taken off life support. That's too long to wait for the truth.

Felner Update

CJ's Nancy Rodriguez provided a brief update on the Robert Felner case on Comment on Kentucky this weekend. Somebody put it on You tube. Thanks to Jake for posting the video at Page One.



Page One also has a piece on a recent court filing. A motion from the U.S. Attorney’s Office counters Felner's claim that he thought he was under arrest. The transcript reads in part:

"You are not under arrest today. Uh, You know, I’m not here to arrest you, or what, you know, at the end of the day, you get up and go home and do whatever you want to do."

Updated update:

Judge rules Felner was not subject

to a custodial interrogation.

Felner's Motion to Suppress Statements denied.

Trials of Robert Felner and Thomas Schroeder not separated.

Details at Page One:

Who Killed the CATS?

It's a shame the CATS assessment went out as it did. Better would have been a planned move to segue CATS toward a kind of value-added system that collected lots of data, but which restrained any inappropriate, scientifically unsupportable uses of the data. C'est dommage.

The state's major newspapers provided their own post mortems on school reform in Kentucky since Friday's collapse of the CATS assessment. They found the same perpetrators.

Their analysis is correct, to a point, but incomplete.

In "Death of reform" the Courier-Journal offered,

The irony is, it's the Republican leadership in Frankfort that has linked arms with the statewide teacher union, the Kentucky Education Association, to trample the remaining vestiges of what was once a comprehensive state reform, with a demanding accountability system.

It's understandable why the conservative, educationally revanchist Republicans and their right-wing think-tank friends want to discredit Kentucky's public education reform, as part of a long-term strategy to abase the public sector, mollycoddle middle-class striver-parents with outmoded, ineffective nationally normed testing and pave the way toward private school vouchers.

C-J might also have mentioned that some opponents didn't seem to believe that equality of educational opportunity was a particularly useful goal from the start. As early as 1994, the Bluegrass Institute's Richard Innes was identified by the Kentucky Post as a KERA foe. BIPPS has since shown a willingness to twist or exaggerate the truth out of any data point to tell a story they wish to be true. The Family Foundation proudly counts itself among those who opposed KERA from the start.

The Herald-Leader has learned that good teachers are sad, but bad teachers are happy. They didn't specifically indicate which were which.

With no whisper of objection from Gov. Steve Beshear, lawmakers last week kicked the ladder out from under the many educators who have been working hard to pull their students and schools up. (On the lower rungs, less accomplished teachers were gleeful.) ...

As it stands, cynics can justifiably conclude that Beshear and House Democrats, under new Speaker Greg Stumbo, caved to the worst impulses of both the teachers union and conservative enemies of public schools.

Similarly, C-J declared it "a mystery why KEA would want to help them do their dirty work," but then decided it must be teacher laziness, and resistance to new ideas - not from the good teachers, you know, but the bad teachers.

You can tell who's who by their support for CATS - or lack thereof.

Simple.

And too simple is what makes both papers wrong.

The papers' desire to turn a deaf ear to the increasingly shrill complaints from a majority of Kentucky teachers - good and bad - over the most recent escalation of test preparation tactics has served to support overzealous superintendents and principals as they ignored veteran teachers' opinions while applying the thumb screws to any teacher who dared not comply.

In that process, we have seen school districts introduce new program after new program, rarely allowing faculty time necessary to allow the innovation to become intergrated into the system. They didn't have time to wait. The superintendent wanted another 10-point jump this year. Somebody on the editorial boards should have written about that.

The holy grail of school reform became that too-good-to-be-true savior principal whose leadership alone would lift children out of ignorance and set the world on the right course.

It a great dream. But it's a dream.

In that sense, do the papers share some complicity for the demise of the CATS assessment?

Just as the papers' unbending support for the Primary Program drove away far too many of our school's most energetic supporters - the parents of primary children - the gamesmanship of the CATS assessment soured a majority of Kentucky teachers. One wonders where we would be today if a more balanced approach was employed by our school reformers, our administrators and the editorial boards. Might it be that the conservative forces could not have mustered the necessary support for a unamious vote in both houses without the number of disillusioned teachers the system has created?

Did you hear that big sigh of relief sweep across the state? I did.

Is it party time in Kentucky schools? I hope not, but I wouldn't give a plug nickle for program evaluations as a substitute for real accountability.

Public schools, in the eyes of different beholders

This from David Hawpe in the Courier Journal:

The easiest thing in the world to concoct is alarmist rhetoric about American education.

Any bad news about U.S. schools is seen as more evidence of America's decline, particularly now, with the prematurely designated Unipower in such reduced circumstances and gleeful detractors already debating whether India or China will succeed to world leadership.

The disparagement and denunciation of the country's public schools, in particular, has been relentless during the Reagan era, as Republicans used their political platforms to claim moral superiority (they insisted friends of public education were guilty of "the soft bigotry of low expectations") as well as superior policy insight (they deemed it absurd to abandon inner city children to the misfeasance of unionized faculties at non-market-driven schools).

Of course, that awful era -- in which free market competition was deemed the answer to any and all problems, no matter how many victims it made - is mercifully coming to an end.

The irony is that conservative intellectuals, who desperately wanted to promote Ronald Reagan as their answer to Franklin D. Roosevelt, now are faced with explaining how the era named for their hero has ended in the same kind of economic disaster that FDR was elected to clean up...

...We all should hope that the NCLB changes being worked out in Washington, and any changes made by the 2009 General Assembly in the Kentucky accountability system, follow the rule they teach in medical school: First, do no harm.

As for me, when weighed down by alarmist rhetoric I turn to the list of destinations for last year's Jefferson County Public Schools seniors. They're all there, from the Ivy League redoubts and "highly selective" out-of-state private and public campuses to the best in-state schools. And no one JCPS high school has a corner on competitive admissions, although some do produce more than others.

That's not the way to judge school systems, but it does confound the rhetoric of public schools' belittlers.

The Felner Chronicles

The Racine Post listed a series of Felner stories last week. The now infamous former UofL Education Dean Robert Felner -- who was trying to get out of town (and into a new funding stream, perhaps) was appointed Chancellor at UW-Parkside but was forced to resigned before his investiture.

The Post's "cautionary tale" has been significantly expanded by KSN&C to include more of Felner's collateral damage.

Felner case may bring U of L new scrutiny on grants Oct 26
Felner Stink Sticks to Deasy Oct 25
Sifting the Ashes as UofL Oct 24
Felner in handcuffs: The Money Shot Oct 23
Reaction to Schroeder indictment in Illinois Oct 23
Felner and Schroeder Indicted Oct 22
INDICTED! He pleads innocent Oct 22
UofL President James Ramsey's Statement on the Indictment of Robert Felner Oct 22
Deasy's Easy Degree raises questions about Doctoral Quality Oct 3
Louisville Grad Students Uneasy about Felner Investigation Oct 2
Another U of L Instant Degree For Sale? Sept 26
Ramsey's PR Campaign Continues Sept 25
Deasy has Resume Errors. Ray & Associates was on the Job Sept 24
Ramsey got Felner's assurance. Now we get Stone's Sept 19
Don’t say the f word Sept 17
Felner Attny Defends Deasy's Instant Doctorate Sept 17
Ramsey says U of L broke no rules on disputed doctorate Sept 13
It's Time to Begin the Search for U of L's Next President Sept 12
SACS, NCATE Look Into U of L Accreditation Problems Sept 12
Was the Price of a Ph.D. at the U. of Louisville 9 Credits and a $375,000 Grant? Sept 11
Probed: The four-month PhD Sept 10
U of L's Integrity on the line Sept 10
Deasy Blames U of L Sept 10
Accountability for John Deasy Sept 10
Need a Doctorate? Hire Felner. Let him Chair your Committee Sept 9
At Last: The Ville's Ramsey apologizes over Felner incident Sept 6
Change agent, class clown or criminal? Sept 3
21 Former U of L Faculty complain of inaction on Felner Sept 3
University distances itself from earlier compliments paid Felner Aug 31
Ramsey Tosses the Faculty a Bone Aug 30
C-J smacks Ramsey, Willihnganz and Porter Aug 29
Felner’s follies - Former U of L dean Robert Felner racked up grievances, not grants Aug 29
UW-Parkside: WHEW! He's not our problem! Aug 27
Felner Update: U of L funds used to keep Rhode Island center afloat Aug 21
A trail of outrage
Feds: More 'threads' probed Aug 13
U of L's Felner tried to get more funding, investigation reveals Aug 10
Lack of Oversight of Felner Conflicts Compromises Research Integrity at U of L Aug 9
U of L grant checks end up in local bank Aug 7
Charge it! he said ($31,000 worth) Aug 4
Emails detail fraud, collusion, fear of IRS and much, much more! July 28
Felner and Schroeder's Sweetheart Deal July 28
Felner Attny hints at Schroeder involvement July 27
Felner: Anatomy of a Fraud? July 26
31 Felner Grievances not typical...so only 4 count? July 22
A Letter from Ramsey and Willihnganz July 21
Felner Pal got Bulk of Money July 20
UofL president raps 'anonymous crap' July 17
33 Grievances = Excellence at U of L July 17
FOI brings stack of grievances July 14
That $694,000 grant was for us? July 10
Grant money went to fake company? VIDEO July 10
Grant monitoring ignored -- VIDEO July 9
The Grievance King July 7
Feds widen probe July 7
He was crime victim, too July 2
UW System finger-pointing July 1
Retaliated against critics July 1
Troubles began in '80s at C-U June 30
Try this, Unified and UW-P! June 27
THE NEVERENDING STORY June 26
Withdraws before taking office June 24

Hat tip to Page One.

Shout Out to Jake at Page One

A big thanks to Jacob Payne for being the fly in the ointment of Robert Felner, and unfortunately by extension, U of L President James Ramsey.

For the first time the Courier-Journal and other news sources are reporting that the alleged fraud ranges in the millions of dollars. Jake reported that months ago.

But it's hard to know what standards of verification bloggers use, especially when reporting unattributed matters where folks don't want to be quoted on the record - a major and necessary hang up for the mainstream media - which explains why C-J was so slow to report the extent of the fraud.

So we had to wait for the official processes to tick away before knowing whether Page One's reporting could be trusted. In the end, clearly, it could be trusted.

I'm not sure that explains why C-J was so slow to pick up the story to begin with. Was it homegrown protectionism? Was it a lack of news-gathering resources? Something else?

It was unfortunate that Ramsey and Provost Shirley Willihnganz were so protective of such a renown jackass as Felner. They clearly paid too much attention to the man behind the curtain. There's a big lesson in there somewhere.

Better would have been a strong response from Ramsey that upheld the best ethical principles at U of L and assured his commitment to discover and correct whatever nefarious individuals may have done to tarnish the reputation of this fine institution. Instead he chose a type of blind loyalty that allowed him to gaze fixedly at U S News and World Report rankings while ignoring all of the smoke - until there was a fully-stoked blaze.

It is obvious from internal emails that university leadership was caught totally off guard by the incident. They were slow on the uptake and chose to go totally defensive in their public relations responses - a move Ramsey later regretted and apologized for. Many U of L faculty were dismissed as malcontents and some called for Ramsey's head.

It seems clear from the public comments that the U of L trustees have accepted Ramsey's explanations and seem to want to go forward with him at the helm. I am told by some who know and respect him, that he is much more capable than this sorry episode would lead one to believe. Ramsey did respond belatedly with a series of efforts to relook the obvious problems uncovered by the whole affair.

It's now up to the citizens (and I suppose, the Governor) to decide if the trustee's handling of this mess was OK with them.

It is not clear that accountability, beyond what lies in "Dr Feloner's" future, will extend to any of his lieutenants - or to what degree the trustees may have formally "evaluated" the situation.

One would hope new Dean Blake Hesselton has his dustpan out for a little house cleaning. I guess we'll have to wait for that as well.

But here we have yet another situation where "the press" (including citizen journalists like Jake) is threatened and painted as the bad guy for reporting "unattributed lies" that turn out to be the truth.

Good job, Jake.

Also a big thanks to Adam Walser at WHAS (and Mark Hebert for catching the definitive Ramsey quote) and the Courier-Journal. You can't ignore that big megaphone the mainstream media wields, and after a slow start both outlets did a fine job of elevating the story to its proper place as the lead story and on the front page.

Felner and Schroeder Indicted for Mail Fraud

In a 1 pm press conference U.S. Attorney Dave Huber lowered the boom on Former U of L Education Dean Robert Felner and Thomas Schroeder.

This from C-J:

...Felner has been indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining nearly $2.3 million in grant money from University of Louisville and University of Rhode Island.

A federal grand jury in Louisville charged Felner, 58, with 10 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and income-tax evasion.

The 45-page indictment says that Felner and Thomas Schroeder, 58, of Illinois, took $1.7 million from the Rhode Island school and about $576,000 from U of L, and attempted to embezzle another $240,000 from U of L.

Felner, who resigned from U of L earlier this year, also allegedly failed to report $1.6 million in income from 2002 to 2007 and allegedly owes $500,000 in federal taxes, U.S. Attorney Dave Huber said in a news release.

Page One Kentucky attended the press conference and posted notes, including...

• Felner squandered millions upon millions of dollars and opened several bank accounts to handle the money.
• Felner's bank accounts and other assets were seized. U of L lost some money. U Rhode Island funds were lost.
• Felner's scam included contracting for work, and retaining funds to which he was not entitled. That income was not reported on his taxes.
• Huber believes they can show the extent of the fraud and the participants.
• He doesn’t see anything else coming at this point but refused to say that nothing else would come down the pike. (Jake says we're not done yet.)
• Arrest warrants are out.

This from the Providence Journal:

The indictment follows a five-month federal investigation by the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service for alleged misappropriation of federal grants while Felner was dean at the University of Louisville's College of Education and Human Development, the job he took after he left URI in June 2003.

Federal agents visited URI several times, looking into his involvement in a research center he established on the Kingston campus in the late 1990s, the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy...

...Last month, URI officials said they were inspecting the finances of a research center founded by Felner on the Kingston campus: The National Center on Public
Education and Social Policy, which Felner established at URI in the late 1990s.

According to a summary of the indictment against Felner, he and Schroeder are
accused of embezzling $1.7 million from NCPE.

NCPE was a self-funded entity that generated income by surveying and assessing high schools, grade schools, and middle schools, the summary said. NCPE generally charged each school about $4,500. Its largest contract was with the Rhode Island Department of Education.

The two are also accused of diverting payments from clients in other states to private bank accounts.

Schroeder is executive director at the Rock Island County Council on Addiction and president of the Riverdale Community Unit School District No. 100 Board of Education.

Press conference video from C-J:

Recent funnies...from the Louisville Satrical Digest:

What's the deal with the Courier-Journal and the Robert Felner story?

Surely C-J knows news when they smell it. They cover certain other stories with journalistic zeal. But on this story, C-J has been consistently a day late and a dollar short.

They seem to be reprinting Page One reporting without attribution.

An alternative explanation is that they are waiting to independently verify everything Page One reports, so that they can "ethically" print it without attribution.

In the e-mails, which The Courier-Journal obtained from UofL under the Kentucky Open Records Act, Felner expressed concern that ...

What's the explanation?

• Does C-J have a sweetheart relationship with U of L that is getting in the way?
• Are C-J's news gathering resources so completely depleted that they struggle to keep up with lowly bloggers?

Today's story is a nice recap of what you read yesterday. Read it. Don't read it. It won't enlighten anyone who has been following the story from other sources.

What today's story will do however, is get into the mainstream media. It will get picked up by the search engines and regular news outlets - none of whom will acknowledge the original source of the story.

Is this assessment too harsh?

Page One continues to Spank C-J on Felner

About a month ago now...Page One Kentucky broke the U of L investigation story and its connection to Education Dean Robert Felner. In his first post he offered to turn over information and help the anyone, including the mainstream media, as much as possible.

Heck, If I hadn't been teaching two summer courses at the time, I'd have jumped on that offer myself. It was clear from the start that this was going to be an unusual story. So, I thank Jake for his tenacity.

Since that time he has been collaborating with out-of-town reporters and posting new stories.

WHAS soon got on board, but C-J was late to the party. C-J has done better since and added some real value to the story, but Jake complains that they still don't understand (or refuse to acknowledge) the scope of the story.

Jake finds the C-Js treatment "highly suspicious,"

The entire Courier-Journal editorial board is now spreading the myth that the federal investigation into Robert Felner’s activities is only about a $694,000 federal grant. Myth/lie/whatever. It’s not the truth. Law enforcement tells us otherwise. The mainstream media in other states tell us otherwise.

This investigation is huge and federal agents have been on multiple college campuses in several states. It’s not only $694K that they’re after. Just yesterday The Journal Times reported that the investigation involved millions. So it’s not a stretch to expect our local paper of record to get the facts correct.

But the C-J seems content piling on the dishonesty or being ill-informed. This needs to stop. Immediately.

This from C-J:

The Felner affair

Certainly, the University of Louisville will have to account for its stewardship in what may have been the mishandling of a $694,000 federal grant. However, there's more to the controversy surrounding former Dean Robert Felner's time at the College of Education and Human Development.

With federal investigators on the case, President James Ramsey says U of L is reviewing the way it oversees such funds. That's checking the barn door after the horse has bolted, but better late than never.

What makes this so poignant is that the grant was supposed to help improve student achievement, but neither state nor local school folks knew much of anything about it.
Few goals are as important to Louisville's future as the continuing development of a public school system that meets the needs of all students, in all parts of town.

Squandering any resources that could be used in that effort is really lousy.

The irony is that any mistakes in money management were made on the watch of Dr. Ramsey -- an expert in budget matters. The good news is that, if anybody knows how to improve financial oversight, he should.

But problems were not just financial. A striking number of grievances and complaints from faculty and students were filed against Dr. Felner, who lost a faculty confidence vote, 27-24. While saying the university took all of this seriously, Dr. Ramsey interprets it as evidence that Dr. Felner "was bringing about change that needed to be made." But there's a difference between changing menus and breaking plates.

Dr. Ramsey's evidence that Dr. Felner was getting things done includes the college's rise in national rankings over the last two years. But then U.S. News & World Report's lists are taken with a grain of salt by academic experts.

He also cites an increase in grants and a stronger relationship with local public schools. But an independent campus group -- maybe an American Association of University Professors committee, including tenured faculty who can't be easily dismissed or marginalized -- should take its own look, not only at the rankings issue but at the other complaints that have been lodged, formally and informally, and into the U of L administration's response.

These are serious issues, and must not be dismissed as the backwash of change.

Courier-Journal: Missing in Action

The Robert Felner story continues to grow with allegations of substantial wrongdoing now being made. The story involves public money; shadow organizations; and failure to report; and future repercussions for the University of Louisville - one of the state's most important public universities.

I see Page One Kentucky, which broke the story a while back.
I see WHAS TV 11.
I even see the little bitty Kenosha News.

But, where oh where has the Courier-Journal gone?

Page One says Nancy Rodriguez "sounded really nervous" when she assured them that she wasn't being silenced on the Felner story.

Yet...nothing ...but silence.

I wonder why.

C-J paints Draud with dismissive attitude

Education Commissioner Jon Draud says he isn't going to continue dialogue on the subject of his state car - a $30k Chrysler 300 C he prefers to the lowly Chevrolet Impala at $15k.

So yesterday, C-J continued their monologue without him.

C-J didn't want Draud from the start so this is fresh meat for the editoral board; and will be until Draud fixes it. Shrugging it off won't end the stories. Continued stories will send the wrong message and will seriously undermine his effectiveness. If/when he does resolve the issue, count on C-J to remind him of it every chance they get. It's fair game.

Kentucky School News & Commentary did support Draud - but can't defend his decision on the car.

C-J takes an historical perspective in making their case.

"You know, if those Kentucky education advocates, business leaders and lawmakers who supported reform in the 1980s had simply shrugged and muttered "it is what it is," we'd still be at the bottom of the national heap."

Curious comparison.

Setting aside whether or not it makes sense, C-J's comparison did remind me of where we are in the historical progression of education, technology and Kentucky's economy. And there, C-J got it mostly right.

We are at a period in our society where advanced education can clearly be seen as vital to maintaining our state economy. Global competition...educated workforce...you know the story. Kentucky will either be competitive or backwater. That decision is being made today; for our children tomorrow.

C-J correctly points out the overall progress Kentuckians can be proud of, including an improved graduation rate, but errs in their estimate of what the basic level of education must be.

C-J suggests, “…the high school diploma is a minimum credential for economic survival…”
But looking at our children's future - it will no longer be a high school diploma. It will be a post-secondary degree (or certification for some kind of specialized tradecraft).

We have seen this kind of change before.

In the 1840s, Kentucky state superintendent Robert J. Breckinridge traveled the state drumming up support for a state system of grammar schools. The aim was to stamp out illiteracy.

By the turn of the century, advances in science and technology brought with it higher demands for a more educated workforce. It was state Superintendent John Grant Crabbe's Whirlwind Campaigns that brought together state civic groups, like the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs, to cover the state in a bombardment against ignorance that resulted in high schools being built in every Kentucky county.

By the early 1980s, technological advances pushed educational need still further. It was the Prichard Committee that held state-wide town meetings in local schools and libraries using KET to unify the message. That helped launch grassroots awareness of the need for better schools. Then, a coalition of courageous local superintendents, including Draud, pushed the ball over the goal line.

From illiteracy, to grammar schools, to high schools, to more effective high schools for all, to college degrees – this progression should continue.

But no reform in Kentucky history has ever been successful without broad grassroots support - and that means educating the public. The General Assembly has demonstrated time and again, that absent strong grassroots support, the legislature would happily under fund the schools. If Senate President David Williams’s comments are any indication, our legislators won’t even feel the pain.

The single most important thing Draud could do to advance education in Kentucky would be to cover the state with education summits, meetings with business leaders, local politicians, PTAs - anybody who will sit still long enough to hear about the importance of education to our state's future economy and the quality of life of its citizens.

To do that, he needs a car. He doesn't need what he got - but that horse has left the barn. KDE owns it and somebody will be driving it. By the time this week's state board of education meeting ends, let's hope this issue ends as well. Draud is entitled to a state car to conduct vitally important state business. By contract, the state must provide him a car that is appropriately safe; and here opinions differ.

But since Draud wanted to sweeten the pot and upgrade his wheels, he ought to reimburse the state according to some prorated formula based on the $15k difference between what every other state executive drives and his ego mobile.

But somehow, Draud's urgent message of the need to, once again, upgrade educational opportunities for Kentucky children - to remain competitive globally - must travel across the state.

That's something we should all support.

Shrugs don't get it

Apparently Education Commissioner John Draud knew all about the cost of the extras that he wanted on his new state vehicle, even though he told The Courier-Journal that he didn't. Emails obtained by the newspaper prove he knew about the $13,000 in add-ons for his new Chrysler 300.

Confronted with either a profoundly faulty memory or a propensity to lie, Mr. Draud told a reporter, "I am not going to continue dialogue on this subject. I was aware of the cost and I approved it. It is what it is."

That's some attitude for the state's highest ranking education official. It's some example for him to set.

You know, if those Kentucky education advocates, business leaders and lawmakers who supported reform in the 1980s had simply shrugged and muttered "it is what it is," we'd still be at the bottom of the national heap.

Instead, the Kentucky Education Reform Act was promoted and passed, and the state's education achievement slowly but surely has risen. We're no long 43rd among the 50 states on an index created by the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center to judge how we're doing in preparing our kids for the competitive world in which they will live and work. We're 34th.

Do you have any idea what it takes to make that kind of move in those sorts of national rankings?

Just this week came news that Kentucky's high school graduation rate has grown at more than double the national average in one recent five-year period. As Art Jester pointed out in The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky tied with New York for third, nationally, with a 6.2 percentage point gain.

In an era when the high school diploma is a minimum credential for economic survival, this is extraordinary progress.

"We're gradually and steadily crawling out of the nation's cellar," said Bob Sexton, longtime head of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, which for the last quarter-century has led the effort to push for better schools, improved curriculum, top-notch instruction and sustained, adequate funding for the state's elementary and secondary system.

If the Prichard Committee and the other reformers had just shrugged and muttered "it is what it is," we'd still be crawling.

You Can't Cut Your Way to Quality

This morning the Courier-Journal takes a look down the fiscal road and correctly points out the obvious truth. Some may not want to hear it - but it's no less true.

A budget that is inadequate PREVENTS our schools from reaching their mandated goals and in the process forces decisions that would never be made otherwise.

Under an inadequate budget QUALITY is forced to compete with AFFORDABILITY.

No lift in ongoing cuts

The 3 percent cut in state funding that Kentucky's public colleges and universities are being forced to absorb is a serious setback, especially for a system that has been charged with ambitious goals like "doubling the numbers" of graduates and competing among the nation's top research institutions.

However, the real problem lies ahead. The fiscal situation looks dark between now and the mid-summer end of the fiscal year, but the prospects for relief in the next two years seem dim, too. It's difficult to see any light at the end of that tunnel.

Ongoing analysis of state government's budget situation by Gov. Steve Beshear and his top advisers, as well as discussions with bond experts in New York, suggests the bottom line may be even worse than the "dire" situation to which Mr. Beshear already has alluded.

It's not surprising he wants immediate cuts, and the campuses will manage them, but what happens after that? If the reduced operating budgets for this fiscal year become the starting point for figuring the system's next biennial budget, that would be a crippling blow. It's difficult to see how the various institutions make any progress toward their assigned goals in such a situation.

Using the 3 percent reduction as a floor for calculating the future would be like grabbing a rocket that's just been fired and holding it there, wasting all the thrust.

The easiest temporary solution on the public campuses is a hiring freeze, as long as exceptions can be made for especially critical positions and for something like a signature "Bucks for Brains" hire. Personnel cuts drop money to the bottom line quickly and reliably. But looking into the next two years, analysts don't see state revenue recovering, what with the impact of rising oil prices and the unfolding subprime mortgage debacle.

The predicament on the campuses is exceedingly frustrating. For example, if the 3 percent cut carries over into the next biennium's budgeting, it would amount to telling the University of Kentucky, "You know that $20 million we gave you to fund your Top 20 Plan? We're taking half of that back." This at a time when UK has been earning national buzz for its effort to move into the ranks of the nation's top public research universities -- at a time when it has been making signature hires, based on a conviction among high-profile new faculty that the state is serious about developing a competitive higher education system.

Some things on UK's potential to-do list, if worst comes to worst, include capping admissions and eliminating new student financial aid programs (very bad ideas, running directly counter to the goal of graduating more degree-holders), decreasing investment in the commercialization of knowledge and economic development (an equally bad idea, given the overarching goal of improving Kentucky's per capita income), reducing faculty and staff compensation (so much for morale and commitment to quality) and raising tuition even beyond the Top 20 Plan's requirements (the worst possible idea, given the hits students already have taken at what is suppose to be a public university).

Gov. Beshear can't cut his way out of this state fiscal crisis. Without new revenue, he can only manage mediocrity. And that's no way to build a legacy of progress.

C-J not buying what Joe Brother's is selling

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

The engineer on the Appointment Express says he won't slow the train. The state school board will roll right ahead and name a new commissioner of education to replace Gene Wilhoit.

Never mind that the turmoil of a gubernatorial campaign undoubtedly kept some of the better potential candidates from stepping forward. Any really qualified individual would want to know what an incoming governor's views and priorities are, before pledging to work harmoniously with him.

The explanations offered by chairman Joe Brothers for railroading this choice are even less credible than the board's first search ...

...The public may be charged up about some things ... but quick action to fill a year-old vacancy in the Frankfort education bureaucracy is not one of them...

...People "across the state" may be paying attention to any number of things ... but the names of candidates for commissioner of education is not one of them.

The school board's responsibility is to the public. And if it goes ahead with an amateurish process ... the public will be justified in concluding the worst: that the board simply has failed to do its job.

... A Kentuckian may turn out to be just the right choice, but limiting the list to folks from Kentucky would be embarrassingly provincial.

The state properly has declined to pay bills from the consulting firm that botched the search culminating in the Erwin debacle. It's a shame nobody's in a position to dock the school board members' pay.

KSN&C welcomes C-J to the Education blogosphere

The Learning Curve, a new education blog put together in time for the start of the 2007-08 school year by the education writers of The Courier-Journal; Nancy C. Rodriguez, Toni Konz and Daarel Burnette.

We are very excited about this new opportunity to communicate with our readers about different things going on in the world of education that don't necessarily make the print edition of the newspaper.

We plan on using this blog as a place to post events and snippets that are taking place in classrooms, schools, colleges and universities both locally and across the state. We also would like to use it as a way to give our readers a "Behind the Scenes" look at some of the stories that do make it into the paper and first-person accounts of some of the stories we cover. We plan to post at least three or four times a week, maybe more.

~

Welcome Y'all. Let us know when you have your feed set up.