'Our greatest citizen leader': Gov. Bert Combs shone during, after political career

This from Kevin Hable in the Courier-Journal:

This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bert Combs, who was born on Aug. 13, 1911, in Clay County. Although he spent much of his professional life in Frankfort, Louisville and Lexington, he was an Eastern Kentuckian his whole life. Many people believe he was one of Kentucky's great governors. I know he was the most outstanding governor in my lifetime. I think we should remember him not only for what he accomplished as governor from 1959 through 1963 but for what he did for Kentucky as a citizen after his political career.

In addition to being governor, Combs spent many years as a judge. Before he became governor he was on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which at the time was the state's highest court. After Combs' term as governor, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he served from 1967 to 1970. I believe he was more proud of having been a judge than of having been governor. He preferred to be called Judge Combs instead of Governor Combs. (His wife, Sara, a former partner at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, was the first woman to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court. She is currently a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. So, even though Bert Combs is gone, there is still a Judge Combs.)

In 1955 Bert Combs ran for governor but lost to Happy Chandler in the Democratic primary. During that campaign, Combs, who had never run for statewide office, tried to explain to voters that Kentucky needed more revenue to become a modern, competitive society. He and his plans were rejected in 1955, but by his second campaign for governor in 1959, the public recognized that Combs had been right in 1955 about Kentucky needing more revenue to become modern. Combs was elected and vindicated. Wilson Wyatt, the former mayor of Louisville, was elected lieutenant governor.

Combs, as governor, succeeded in preparing Kentucky to be a modern society. The Combs administration accomplished more in one four-year term than most U.S. governors get done in eight years. (The Kentucky Constitution did not then allow a governor to succeed himself and serve two consecutive terms.). To get the revenue to begin to make Kentucky a modern society, Kentucky enacted a 3-cent sales tax. One cent of that tax was committed to a bonus for military veterans, leaving two-thirds of the new revenue for education and the modernization of Kentucky society.

Bert Combs, as governor, made sure that Kentucky increased its investment in education significantly. During his term, funding for education increased 50 percent and the community college system began. Although KET did not become a reality until after his term, Combs was, I believe, one of the first to suggest that we have a statewide educational TV network.

Other significant steps occurred during the Combs administration. His administration undertook a major expansion and renovation project in the state park system and began a road construction project that resulted in modern highways that connected all parts of Kentucky.

Combs proposed a merit employment system for state employees that protected career public servants from political threats. In my view, the merit system made it easier to attract and keep qualified people as public servants.

Combs realized that a modern society could not tolerate racial discrimination; he ordered in 1963 the desegregation of all public accommodations in Kentucky, a year before Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Combs knew that the big increase he obtained for education spending could result in money being wasted or improperly spent. He ordered an audit of a county school system and its superintendent in my part of Eastern Kentucky. The audit showed misuse of funds. The state school board removed the county school board members. Their replacements, the new county school board, then fired the county superintendent. Combs believed it was important to show the education community that the increased state spending be well-managed and spent solely on education.

Kentucky was prepared to be a modern 20th century society after Combs' term. The only other political leader I can think of who presided over such big, permanent changes in society was Franklin Roosevelt.

After his governorship, Combs became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals. I believe this was a high honor; that court is one level below the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1971, Combs ran for the Democratic nomination for governor. He was defeated by Wendell Ford. I believe that serving on the 6th Circuit kept Combs from preparing adequately to run in 1971.

Combs never ran for office again. If the story of his contribution to Kentucky society ended there, we would view his record as having been outstanding. But I believe his most important contributions to Kentucky society came when he was a private citizen after 1971.

His later contributions came in the areas of education and the law. These areas were not a surprise to anyone who knew him. I was a child when Combs was governor. I got to know him after joining his law firm and becoming his law partner. He spent a lot of time with me I guess because I was, for a time, in public life. His quiet passion for educational excellence and educational equality was clear to me. I have always given his mother some credit for his commitment to education; she was a schoolteacher in Clay County. For Combs, learning was a lamp that could light the way to a larger life.

Combs started his public involvement as a private citizen by being one of the founders of the Prichard Committee in 1983. Robert Sexton, the first and longtime executive director of the committee, gave the reasons for its founding: “They (the founders) did so because they were frustrated with elected officials' indifference to education and because they felt that Kentucky's historic educational deficits would not solve themselves. ... They wanted to create a compelling vision of a future with excellent schools.”

The Prichard Committee worked to convince the public that education reform was needed, that it needed to be comprehensive and that it needed to be accomplished soon. In my view, the Prichard Committee played a key role in creating the climate of acceptance for the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Since the adoption of KERA, the Prichard Committee has been the conscience of education reform in Kentucky. It has been used as a model by citizen groups in other states.

It is clear to me that Combs' greatest accomplishment in a life of accomplishments was his successful pro-bono representation of 66 poor school districts in their challenge to Kentucky's school financing system.

Those districts claimed the school financing system unfairly discriminated against poor districts. In 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court declared the entire public school system unconstitutional. Chief Justice Stephens wrote the court's opinion in the case, Rose v. Council for Better Education. The court found that education is a fundamental right in Kentucky and that the school system must be adequately funded to achieve its goals and, further, that funding must be substantially uniform, so that every child is provided with an equal opportunity to have an adequate education.

In response to the ruling, the General Assembly adopted KERA in 1990. KERA provided for significant alterations in Kentucky's school system, established a procedure for equalizing financing among school districts and set up accountability standards that were, at the time, considered to be rigorous.

No governor or other political leader could have proposed anything as radical as the restructuring of the entire school system and been taken seriously. It took a citizen who had a quiet passion for educational excellence and educational equality who took a case for free because he knew its rightness. It took a committed citizen leader to convince the Kentucky Supreme Court that the operation of our school system was fundamentally wrong and unfair.

Many have said that in a democracy the highest office is the office of citizen. If that is true, then the highest form of leadership is effective citizen leadership. In my opinion, Combs was the greatest citizen leader in my life. We should remember and celebrate how he changed Kentucky society as a citizen. His leadership as a private citizen is an example for all of us to imitate.
I'm proud to have been his friend and his law partner.

Kevin Hable is the former managing partner of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs and currently serves on the board of the Prichard Committee. He served as secretary of Gov. Brereton Jones' Cabinet in the 1990s.

Shameless Self-promotion

This from the Kentucky Historical Register:

NOW AVAILABLE!
Abraham Lincoln and Kentucky, a special issue of the Register, Volume 106, Numbers 3-4 (Summer/Autumn 2008). Learn more about obtaining your copy.

NOW AVAILABLE!
Kentucky and the Contested Legacy of Jefferson Davis, a special issue of the Register, Volume 107, Number 2 (Spring 2009). Learn more about obtaining your copy.

Coming Soon!
 

The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 

Volume 109, Number one (Winter 2011)

Bert Combs and the Council for Better Education: Catalysts for School Reform by Richard E. Day
Given the reality of our ongoing concern about the state of public education in Kentucky, articles on this topic enjoy a kind of perennial relevance. Richard Day presents an instructive essay on the foundations of modern education reform. Committed reformers, including former governor Bert T. Combs, were able to end the scandal of unequal funding and make possible the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990.

“And Shall thy Flowers Cease to Bloom?” The Shakers’ Struggle to Preserve Pleasant Hill, 1862 -1910 by David Marsich
The Shakers enjoyed a vital presence in Kentucky in the period of religious ferment following the Second Great Awakening. Over time, particularly after the Civil War, their numbers dwindled. David Marsich’s compelling account of their later history, however, stresses their steady commitment to their mission and their creative adaptations to changing circumstances rather than the standard narratives of decline and defeat.

Mystic Chords of Memory: Thoughts on the Impending Civil War Sesquicentennial by Glenn W. LaFantasie
The Civil War sesquicentennial is now upon us, and Glenn W. LaFantasie has provided a vivid introduction to it by discussing the profound impact of the conflict on Kentucky and the nation. He also points out the deep contrast between the terrible effect of the war on those who fought it and the degree to which it has been romanticized, both then and now.

New statewide education action team being organized

First meeting set next month in Louisville

This from KSBA:

The Council for Better Education plans to convene leaders of K-12 school groups next month with a goal of creating a new statewide advocacy group to share common information on school funding issues.

The council, comprising 168 districts focused on school financial matters, will host an initial discussion on the formation of the Kentucky Education Action Team July 23 in Louisville, at the conclusion of the annual conference of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.

CBE President Tom Shelton, superintendent of the Daviess County Schools, announced plans for the new advocacy group’s formation Tuesday in Bowling Green during the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents summer conference.

“The idea is based on the work that a large number of districts started with the Northern Kentucky Education Action Team,” Shelton said. “Our hope is to work toward common goals and discussions about funding and fund-related issues for education all across the state.”

The northern Kentucky group, made up mostly of superintendents, school board members and other education advocates in that region, has lobbied state and legislative leaders on school finance issues for the past two years. A similar group has been formed in northwest Kentucky and others are under discussion in the Elizabethtown, Lexington and Owensboro areas.

“It is our hope to have the group function out of Frankfort, working with regional groups throughout the state, to improve communications and to keep our constituents informed and working toward the same goals,” Shelton said...

CBE Fires a Volley at the General Assembly Over Declining School Funding

This from the Daviess County Superitnendent Tom Shelton at the Council for Better Education:

STATEWIDE SCHOOL FUNDING

DECLINE RAISES CONCERNS

Kentucky schools received less money per pupil from the state’s main funding formula this year. Schools are getting $50 less per pupil in state SEEK funding for 2009-10 than they received the year before. Even with a $31 increase in average local funding, schools still have $19 less per student. The Council for Better Education (Council) finds the trend alarming and urges the General Assembly to restore SEEK funding in the new state budget.

SEEK is short for “Support Education Excellence in Kentucky,” the program that provides most of the dollars schools use to educate students from kindergarten through high school. SEEK includes both state and local dollars. The Council, which represents local districts in work on education quality and funding, released a new overview this week of SEEK trends from 2005-06 through 2009-10.

“In years past, we’ve seen meager increases in state SEEK, sometimes keeping up with inflation and sometimes not even doing that. This year is different. This year, state SEEK funding actually declined,” said Tom Shelton, the Daviess County school superintendent who serves as council president.

Factoring in inflation makes the problem even clearer. “If you adjust for rising costs, both state and local dollars lost buying power. Effectively, schools have $211 less per pupil to work with this year than they did last year,” Shelton pointed out.

Shelton sees these results as especially important in the last days of the General
Assembly. “The state budget is being set right now. The House is talking about reducing the state share of SEEK funding again, and the Senate is talking about reducing it even more. That’s hard to understand. Our students need legislators to take a clear-eyed look at the harm that’s already been done, stop the SEEK cuts, and add the funding our schools need to equip all students for adult success.”

In addition to the statewide report, the Council has prepared overviews for each Kentucky school district, showing SEEK funding for the last five years both with and without inflation adjustments. The Council’s website offers easy access to the state and all the local versions of the two-page reports.

The Council for Better Education represents 168 of Kentucky’s 174 school districts in efforts to ensure full implementation of Kentucky’s constitutional commitment to our students and our common schools.

In the interest of full disclosure, CBE also hosts a copy of Richard Day's dissertation on it's site.

What SB1 Taketh. School Administrators Giveth Backeth.

Arguably, the most bothersome part of Senate Bill 1 for most school administartors, was its removal of accountability during the intervening three year period while the new test is being constructed. A remedy offered by the Council for Better Education, the Kentucky Association of School Councils, and the Prichard Committee is a "transition index" calculated, roughly, along the same lines as the previous CATS assessment, minus writing portfolios.

Instead of KDE publishing the results,

From KASC's website, you'll be able to download lists showing all schools, with their 2007 through 2009 results and their 2014 projections, plus separate files showing the disaggregated information. We'll handle district data the same way, and add a summary report describing statewide trends. Once KDE lifts the embargo, we'll complete our work as quickly as possible, and we expect to share everything within two weeks.

Susan has the weights and calculations over at the Prichard Blog.

SB 1 Taketh Away. Ed Groups Put Back.

The largest concern voiced by educators over Senate Bill 1 was the removal of accountability during the three year interim while the new accountability system is being constructed. Today the Council for Better Education, the Kentucky Association of School Councils, and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence are trying to put it back...sorta.

The truncated “transition index” is an effort to construct a snapshot of school data that might inform the public and keep accountability on the minds of educators until 2012.

SCHOOL, STATE EDUCATION PROGRESS WILL BE TRACKED
BY EDUCATION GROUPS DURING TESTING TRANSITION

DANVILLE, Ky. - School progress on state tests will be tracked by a partnership of education advocacy organizations during the next three years, while the state is suspending its accountability reports and developing a new testing system. The Council for Better Education, the Kentucky Association of School Councils, and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence will issue a report each fall on school, district, and state progress on students’ academic performance.

Kentucky is scheduled to start a new test in 2012, as required by this year’s Senate Bill 1. During the 2009 to 2011 transition period, the state Department of Education will release student scores but will not provide an “accountability index” combining all results in a single snapshot of progress being made.

To fill the gap, the three organizations plan to use test results and other information to calculate a “transition index” that closely resembles the academic data published by the state in past years.

“Our transition version will leave out the writing portfolio, arts, and practical living, because they’ve been dropped from statewide testing. But otherwise it will be similar to scoring the state department has used for years,” said Bob Sexton, the Prichard Committee’s executive director. “We think we can provide a valuable annual snapshot each year.”

Speaking for the school councils’ group, executive director Ronda Harmon, points out that “An index provides the big picture on whether schools’ strategies are working with kids. We see this transition project as a way to help schools measure their progress until the new 2012 assessment begins.”

Statewide results will also be reported. “We need steady data on whether progress in our statewide school system is strong enough, and whether we’re moving quickly enough toward proficiency for all students,” said Daviess County Superintendent Tom Shelton, president of the Council for Better Education.

The Council for Better Education represents 168 of Kentucky’s 174 school districts in efforts to ensure an efficient system of public schools. The Kentucky Association of School Councils is a membership organization supporting school councils, which are responsible for key school decisions about how to improve student achievement. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence is an independent, non-profit, citizens' advocacy organization working to improve education for all Kentuckians.

SOURCE: KASC press release

CBE REPORT: KENTUCKY IS NOT ON TRACK FOR HIGH SCHOOL PROFICIENCY

The Council for Better Education, based on testing results released today, has expressed grave concern that Kentucky is not on track to deliver proficient high school graduates and provide an efficient system of common schools by 2014.

In a report released today and available at http://www.kycbe.com/, the Council notes that average student performance declined at almost half of Kentucky high schools from 2007 to 2008. At another third, scores improved, but at a pace too slow to reach statewide proficiency goals by 2014. Only one high school in six improved student work enough to meet those state goals on schedule.

The Council also found that results by group either declined or improved too slowly to meet state goals. Female and white students showed weak progress, as did students who participated in the free-and-reduced-price lunch program. Results declined for male students, for African-American, Hispanic, and Asian students, for students who did not participate in the lunch program, and for students both with and without disabilities.

Roger Marcum, the Council’s president, addressed the results, saying: “These are very disturbing results. We urge all CBE members to take strong action to change these trends, and we call on the General Assembly and other state leaders, as well as the citizens of the Commonwealth, to ensure that our schools and districts have the resources and support they need to deliver student proficiency by 2014. Our children’s futures and our shared future as a state are in danger if we do not deliver for each and every child in the coming years.”

The Council for Better Education represents 168 of Kentucky’s 174 school districts in efforts to ensure full implementation of Kentucky’s constitutional commitment to our students and our common schools.

SOURCE: CBE press release

Kentucky schools cutting 975 jobs...and David Williams still can't feel any real pain

You may recall our self-esteemed President of the Senate David Williams declared that Kentuckians would not feel any real pain as a result of the recent budget cuts. I'll bet 975 Kentuckians would beg to differ.

This from Raviya Ismail at the Herald-Leader:

Kentucky schools have eliminated about 975 positions, including 455 teachers, to cope with cuts in the state's two-year budget, according to a state education group.

The Kentucky School Boards Association conducted a survey that found nearly 90 of the state's 174 school districts have cut about 455 certified positions and about 520 classified positions from their payrolls. Teachers are certified staff, and teachers' aides, also known as para-educators, are classified staff.

The reductions affect about 1 percent of the state's 42,000 teachers.

“The worry is that (layoffs) will be worse in the '09-'10 school year,” said Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association.

When adjusted for inflation, the state's funding of K-12 education will decline by $172 million this fiscal year and $171 million next year, according to an analysis by the Council for Better Education.

Specifically, the state budget cut about $43 million from education programs, including a $14.7 million reduction in the main funding formula for school districts. Also hard hit were professional development and after-school tutoring programs...

Last Year for CBE President Marcum

This from the Lebanon Enterprise:

Superintendent Roger Marcum

announces his intent to retire in 2009

Marion County Superintendent [and President of the Council for Better Education] Roger Marcum announced his intent to retire next year during the Marion County Board of Education's regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, July 8.

The 2008-09 school year will be Marcum's 10th year of service as
superintendent and will conclude 34 years as a Kentucky public school educator.

"While those years have been rewarding and personally satisfying, they have also been very challenging with great demands physically, mentally and emotionally," Marcum said during Tuesday night's meeting. "Upon retirement, I plan to seek other opportunities to continue my career in education."

Marcum's retirement will become effective June 30, 2009.

"I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish together especially in a time of decreasing and inadequate resources," Marcum said.

Beginning immediately, the Marion County Board of Education will begin the process of selecting a new superintendent.

"With the turnover of 33 of the 174 superintendents in Kentucky this year and with much the same predicted to happen in this coming school year the demand for quality superintendents is extremely high and the supply is very low," Marcum said.

"By announcing my intent to retire tonight I am providing the Marion County Board of Education a full year to conduct their search." ...

Council for Better Education Launches Website

Roger L. Marcum, Superintendent of the Marion County Schools and President of the Council for Better Education announced CBE's new website today.

The website will allow CBE to share its analyses of Kentucky student achievement, school funding, and litigation issues, and will also link to valuable work by others on these topics.

Speaking of which...I'm pleased that CBE saw fit to include my study to their site:

Each Child, Every Child: The story of the Council for Better Education, Equity and Adequacy in Kentucky's Schools, by Richard Day

In announcing the site Marcum said, "We hope you find it helpful, and we invite your feedback on this new project."

Council for Better Education Budget Analysis

When adjusted for inflation, the costs associated with running Kentucky's schools eat into the 2008-09 budget leaving a net loss to the schools of $171 million. ($2 million less unadjusted) This from an analysis by the Counci for Better Education.

Districts see losses in buying power is several areas:

 The state share of the SEEK Base guarantee
 Transportation

 Vocational trans portation
 State-operated Vocational Schools
 Kentucky Teachers Retirement System (counting both line items)
 Preschool
 Professional Development
 Safe Schools
 Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (counting both line items)
 Textbooks Program
 Early Reading/Read to Achieve
 Gifted and Talented
 State Agency Children Program
 KDE Operations (estimated)
 ACT and WorkKeys Testing
 CATS Testing
 Mathematics Achievement Fund
 Commonwealth. School Improvement Fund
 Highly Skilled Educator Program
 Debt service
 KETS
 Joint Technology. Initiative (estimated)
 Education Professional Standards Board
 School Facilities Construction. Commission

That compares to several areas where buying power increases:

 The state share of Tier 1 equalization
 The state share of facilities equalization
 Nationally Certified Teachers
 Kentucky School for the Deaf
 Kentucky School for the Blind
 Health Insurance

The complete budget legislation is available for download at http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/08RS/HB406.htm.

Click the blue link that says “HB 406” to download the Word Document. Search for “D. Department” as a shortcut to find the P-12 provisions.

SOURCE: Council for Better Education President Roger Marcum.

Covington's Moreland to retire

Jack Moreland is hanging it up.

Congratulations, Jack.

As I have acknowledged elsewhere, I am indebted to Moreland; not just for the beer he bought me at a Kentucky Association of School Administrators summer meeting, but also "for his clear interpretation of the events surrounding what will surely be the hallmark of his fine career in public education."

I was referring to his leadership of the Council for Better Education during the darkest days of the superintendents' suit against the state - when the legislative and bureaucratic heat was on - and after its historic conclusion. Jack (and Frank Hatfield, the Council for Better Education's first president) submitted ot interviews and allowed me to scour CBE records as part of my doctoral study. When the study was recognized nationally in the field of education law, the Council published it.

Moreland wishes the district had made more progress on the state assessment, but he will retire with an uncommonly proud legacy. His leadership is notable for its shear impact on public education in Kentucky; an impact few can match.

The none too flattering photo is a few years old.

This by Kevin Eigelbach in the Kentucky Post:

Jack Moreland started his tenure as superintendent of the Covington Independent Schools in 2000 as an interim, with a state takeover of the district looming.

He leaves it a better district than he found it, if not a perfect one, said one of his bosses.

Moreland, who announced Tuesday he plans to retire at the end of this school year, gave the district the stability it needed, longtime school board member Jim Vogt said. "He came in a time of turmoil. There was a real sense of people being down, and people leaving.

"The focus he brought was a positive, we-can-do-it kind of attitude, and I think that was contagious."

Moreland was hired as the interim after then-Superintendent James Kemp resigned under pressure from the board. A year before, the state Department of Education had reported that in spite of the district's high spending, its students continued to score poorly on achievement tests.

Moreland brought instant credibility because of his role as a founding member of the Council for Better Education, a coalition of districts that pushed equitable state funding for with a landmark lawsuit.

Funding is always a challenge for superintendents, Moreland said, because there's never enough to pay personnel what they're worth. The coalition's efforts resulted in the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which The New York Times called the most sweeping and ambitious education reform in the 50 states.

"I don't think I'll ever be involved in anything as significant as that was," Moreland said. "I only had a small part to play, but I'm awfully proud of the part I did play."

Moreland, who was superintendent of the Dayton Independent Schools at the time, was the first plaintiff in the lawsuit that prompted the Kentucky Supreme Court in 1989 to declare the state's school funding system unconstitutional.

When 100 Kentucky superintendents reactivated the Council in 2003, they unanimously voted for him to lead them.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators named Moreland its superintendent of the year that year. This fall, he was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

"It's not hurt us that he's very well respected on the state level," Vogt said.

"Just by dint of who he is ... he was able to find ways to build bridges that maybe weren't there before," Vogt said. "I think that's real important for school systems today, that they not exist in isolation."

Moreland led a reform of the district built around realigning curricula, emphasizing basic reading instruction and increasing opportunities for teachers to get more training. From 2000 to 2006, the overall academic index for the district's elementary schools rose from 47.1 to 66.4. For middle schools, it rose from 39.4 to 49.9 and for high schools from 51.5 to 60.

"We haven't made as much progress as we would like to have made," Moreland said. "However, clearly, we have made significant progress." All-day kindergarten and expanded early reading opportunities stand to help the district make further, long-term gains, Moreland said.

A graduate of Eastern Kentucky and Xavier universities, Moreland began his career in education almost four decades ago as a chemistry teacher in the Newport and Dayton systems. He served as superintendent of the Dayton Independent Schools for 19 years, then was interim president of Northern Kentucky University from 1996 to 1997.

He followed that with another interim job - as chancellor of the technical branch of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System for a year.

He has taught as an adjunct instructor in school administration at Xavier, and is teaching the subject this semester at NKU.

His four-year contract with the Covington board ends with this school year, and he decided not to accept another four-year contract. He would have been 65 when it ended.

"I've been a superintendent for 26 years, and I've got bruises all over my body to prove it," Moreland said. "It's been a great run, but it's a taxing job."

Some of those bruises came in verbal battles with former Kentucky Education
Commissioner Gene Wilhoit.

When Moreland asked the Department of Education for help in 2002, the department responded with a financial audit of the district.

He told Wilhoit of his frustrations at a board meeting in January 2003.

Wilhoit told him he was simply doing his duty to see that every school district in the state has a balanced budget.

The state assigned former school superintendent Dan Branham to the Covington schools for 18 months to help the district solve its budget problems.

"Dan, you say you can't cut your way out of a deficit. Well, I say you can't cut your way into excellence, either," Moreland told him at the board meeting.

Some of the district's financial problems stemmed from efforts to turn its academic problems around, such as spending $400,000 to overhaul its curricula and $300,000 for a security camera system to improve safety.

The district ended the 2003-2004 school year in the black, a year ahead of a state-imposed deadline.

Over the years, Moreland had some intense discussions with his board members, but he never left a meeting feeling he didn't have a chance to express his opinion, he said.

"Whenever you have a board of education, there will be five different opinions," he said. "The Covington board ... we would deliberate and have our say, but in the end, we came together in consensus."

The current emphasis on school accountability, with federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind, isn't all bad, Moreland said.

"In the late '60s and early '70s, when I began my career, I think we had allowed a lot of complacency to come into education," he said. "Just getting to the end of the school year was an end in itself."

But the pendulum has swung too far the other way, he said, so that test scores have become ends in themselves. Many good things that happen in schools never get measured on an accountability score, he said.

He has no plans for his retirement, except to indulge in his love of travel with his wife. "I don't have a real hobby I'm thrilled about," he said. "My hobby has always been school."

The 'campaign" for Kentucky's next Education Commissioner begins

What? You thought the Board of Education was going to select the next commissioner? I heard that too. But apparently that doesn't prohibit a selection campaign.

Afterall, rumors are swirling now - legislative intrusion - anyone close to leadership of the Council for Better Education OUT - hand picked successors - why not a campaign?

Penny Sanders has a track record of tough-mindedness, knows the Frankfort terrain and served Kentucky well in the early days of reform. Penny deserves a look. But shouldn't the board at least review a few folks first?

This from Family Foundation head Martin Cothran's vere loqui blog:

Penney Sanders for State School Commissioner

While the State School Board was scouring the country looking for someone to fill the post of State School Commissioner, they apparently didn't notice (or chose to ignore) an obvious candidate.

After the Barbara Erwin fiasco, maybe one of the things they need to do anyway is look a little closer to home. Penney Sanders, the former head of the Legislative Research Commission's Office for Education Accountability, would be an excellent choice for this position.

Here are some reasons for considering Sanders for the post:

• She knows the educational lay of the land better than any other candidate the Board could find
• She has established relationships with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, many of whom know her well
• She is not afraid to take on the educational establishment when she needs to
• She knows not only the policies of Kentucky education, but the politics
• She not only hasn't padded her resume, but doesn't need to
• She's available ...

Officials: School funding suit over

Superintendents won't appeal

As previously reported, the Council for Better Education - a coalition of 164 (of 175) school districts in Kentucky - has decided not to appeal a ruling by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate. This brings to an end the conjoined school funding cases CBE v Williams and Young v Williams.

Council President Roger Marcum said, however, that the group "will continue to lead efforts for adequate resources" for all Kentucky students.

"Our members continue to believe that Kentucky's academic progress is too slow," said Marcum, who added that the lawsuit kept "the issue on the front burner."

...Marcum -- superintendent of the Marion County school system -- left open the possibility of a future lawsuit...

The case was a followup to the Kentucky Supreme Court's landmark decision in Rose v Council for Better Education, in 1989, which has since been used nationally as precedent in more than three hundred cases. In Rose, inequities and inadequacies in the system prompted the court to declare the entire system of schools to be unconstitutional. That resulted in a re-working of Kentucky's school laws under the name, Kentucky Education Reform Act, or HB 940, which was signed by Governor Wilkinson in 1990.

But the Kentucky constitution contains particularly strong separation of powers language and the courts are reticent to direct the legislature to do anything in particular. This seems to be where Young v. Williams ran into trouble. When the Council asked the court to direct the legislature to use a “specific, systematic method to quantify the amount of money necessary to provide an adequate system of common schools,” Judge Wingate said they went over the line and he responded with a summary judgment for the defense.

After Wingate's ruling, the council filed a motion asking him to reconsider. He denied the motion May 30.

...He said it was not the court's role to dictate to the legislature a specific method for determining whether the schools are being adequately funded. And he said the legislature's method of using rising test scores as proof that schools are being adequately funded is constitutional.

As KSBA reported, the Council decided against an appeal since the best result would only continue the lawsuit.

“If we appeal, the result will not be for the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court to say, ‘You win, you get more money.’ It would only be to rule in whether to have a trial,” attorney Byron Leet of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs said. “A successful appeal would take at least two years to get back to Franklin Circuit Court through the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.”

Leet and Marcum pointed to a bright side to Wingate’s ruling. “Judge Wingate said there is a genuine question about whether the legislature is meeting its constitutional obligation, and that’s a decision for a court to make,” Leet said. “He rejected the defendants’ argument that they were immune from being sued and left the door open for the council or someone else to come back to the court in the future.

Indeed, in the Rose case, the court ruled the system unconstitutional, but stopped short of telling the legislature how to fix it.

Wingate’s rejection of the Council’s legal theory in Young was, consistent with Rose, a stark refusal to step “onto the slippery slope by stipulating the manner by which the General Assembly must carry out its responsibilities.”

It now appears the only viable option for the Council for Better Education is to monitor the legislature to see if they will - despite a long history to the contrary - provide a level of support for the schools that will allow Kentuckly students to achieve the state's goals. Failing that, CBE may need to file a new case, with a new legal strategy.

In the meantime - despite widespread acknowledgement that the present system is underfunded by hundreds of million dollars - Wingate’s ruling will only reinforce the legislature’s natural tendency maintain the status quo.

What NOBODY wants to talk about is the legislature's other option. The General Assembly is empowered by the constitution to maintain present funding levels and simply lower the state's goals. If that were to occur, it would produce a crippling workforce circumstance that would harm the state for decades to come.

This from the Courier-Journal.

School funding adequacy lawsuit ends

This from Brad Hughes at the Kentucky School Board Association.

Lexington – The Council for Better Education, a group including most of the state’s public school districts, will not appeal a Franklin Circuit Court ruling in its lawsuit against the General Assembly, effectively ending the three-year fight over whether the state is providing constitutionally adequate funding for its schools.

During the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents’ summer conference in Lexington Friday, CBE President Roger Marcum and attorney Byron Leet of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, recommended the action. A quick vote not to appeal the ruling by Judge Thomas Wingate followed.

“I know we’re all disappointed in the outcome,” Marcum said, “but it’s not over. We need to continue to make our case to the public.In an interview after the vote, Marcum, superintendent of Marion County Schools, said he believes the lawsuit has produced positive results.

“There are now more resources for the children of Kentucky and in the last session, we saw evidence that (the lawsuit) has accomplished that,” he said. “It made everyone aware that funding for public education is something that we have to be continually aware of. We didn’t solve the problem in 1990 with the Kentucky Education Reform Act and the needs continue to change as we move forward. I think the council has kept that issue on the front burner.

...Leet and Marcum pointed to a bright side to Wingate’s ruling. “Judge Wingate said there is a genuine question about whether the legislature is meeting its constitutional obligation, and that’s a decision for a court to make,” Leet said. “He rejected the defendants’ argument that they were immune from being sued and left the door open for the council or someone else to come back to the court in the future.

...For now, Marcum said the council will remain active and will follow up on its recent white paper, Progress but Not Enough Progress.

LEGISLATORS IMAGINING PRIVILEGES

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
August 7, 2006
Author: Richard Day

I've been racking my brain, but I can't remember the last time I hid money in the freezer.

That's what U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., did.Court documents say Jefferson accepted bribes to help a Kentucky-based company obtain government contracts -- economic development's ugly side, I guess. The FBI followed the money to the congressman's freezer, and Jefferson cried "legislative immunity." Did the FBI have a right to conduct a warranted search of the congressman's office?

In a rare, yet unfortunate, act of bipartisan unity, Democratic and Republican lawmakers went berserk, complaining that they should be immune from searches by the executive branch.Jefferson called it "an outrageous intrusion in the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government."

In a recent ABC News poll, 86 percent of Americans disagreed.

Privileges granted to Kentucky legislators -- such as Republican Senate President David Williams and Democratic Speaker of the House Jody Richards -- under Kentucky's Constitution are identical to those for members of the Congress.And like Jefferson, Williams and Richards want to reinvent the definition of legislative immunity.

Fortunately for us, the Kentucky Supreme Court recently ruled on the issue in Baker vs. Fletcher.The court illustrated the intent of the law, citing the English Bill of Rights and James Wilson, a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention who said, "In order to enable and encourage a representative of the publick to discharge his publick trust with firmness and success, it is indispensably necessary, that he should enjoy the fullest liberty of speech, and that he should be protected from the resentment of every one, however powerful, to whom the exercise of that liberty may occasion offense."

Virginia's experience with legislative immunity is instructive.

In 1660, Virginia Delegate Nathaniel Bacon was arrested by the royal governor as he traveled to the House of Burgesses to vote in opposition to the governor's wishes. Clearly, in such instances, legislative immunity is vital.

Unfortunately, in recent years Virginia lawmakers have used legislative immunity as a dodge. The Virginian-Pilot reported that state troopers were powerless to stop legislators from "driving as fast as they pleased on county roads outside Richmond."One delegate claimed immunity while he continued to use his radar detector, which is illegal in Virginia. Still another delegate claimed immunity as a defense against an indecent-exposure charge. Clearly, in such cases, legislative immunity is a coverup.

In a Kentucky case, Council for Better Education vs. Williams, Williams and Richards have not been deposed for almost a year now. They are claiming legislative immunity.

CBE vs. Williams questions whether the General Assembly has met its constitutional obligation to public education. The Supreme Court has already made clear in Rose vs. Council for Better Education that the General Assembly is solely responsible for maintaining an efficient system of schools and providing adequate resources to reach its rather ambitious goals.But the Council for Better Education, a collection of nearly all of the state's school districts, has filed suit asserting that the legislature has not met its constitutional mandate.

I understand that legislators should be protected from the resentment of the powerful, but I'm pretty sure that does not include Kentucky's children. There's a legitimate legal question; we need a ruling.

Rather than claiming immunity to protect legislative free-speech rights, Williams and Richards want to clam up. They want to misuse one section of the constitution to keep from having to do what another section requires of them.

We've come to expect this kind of legislative over-reaching from Williams. He's the legislative top dog in a state with a weak Republican governor, a confused opposition and a growing number of "right thinking" judges.Who can forget Williams' infamous assertion that "if 20 people in (the Senate) voted that someone was 30 years old (even though they aren't), no court in the land could overturn that."I can guess where his head is. "King David" has a nice ring to it.

But what is the explanation for Richards? Good stewardship of the public schools ought to be a bedrock principle of the Democratic Party, but I guess not.

The praise Republicans deserve for a 2006 regular session that improved the schools pales when one recalls the previous decade of neglect. And Democrats were largely responsible during most of Kentucky's history; that's a story with more lows than highs.

Clearly, Williams and Richards should not be deposed when the legislature is in session. But they have refused for a long time now, whether the General Assembly was in session or not. Shame on them. It's time to drop the pretense, take the immunity defense out of the freezer and do the people's business.

Caption:- Richard Day of Lexington is a former elementary school principal.
Edition: FinalSection: CommentaryPage: A9
Copyright (c) 2006 Lexington Herald-Leader
Record Number: 0608080135