House to hold hearings on tax reform soon

This from Bluegrass Politics:

FRANKFORT — House leaders said Monday that they plan to hold hearings soon on two tax overhaul bills in preparation for a possible special legislative session this summer.

Rep. Rick Rand, D-Bedford, chairman of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, said Monday that hearings on two tax reform bills as well as other discussions about the condition of the state’s finances could take place as early as late April.

“The prospects for our next budget cycles are not rosy,” Rand said. “We want to make sure that we are prepared to make any decisions that we may have to make.”

The General Assembly just adjourned on Thursday. But talks of tackling tax reform — or looking at the way Kentucky generates revenue — started early in the 2009 session after the General Assembly passed a combination of cuts and increases in cigarette and alcohol taxes as a way to plug a $456 million shortfall. Many legislators, in speeches on the floor and privately, said the state could no longer balance its books on the backs of just a few industries.

And many say next year’s budget shortfall could be even greater as the state’s revenues continue to decline. Gov. Steve Beshear said last week that he has not yet decided whether to call a special session to address a potential shortfall.

The legislature has kicked around tax reform since Gov. Paul Patton’s tenure in the 1990s, but the measure gained steam when a 2002 report showed that Kentucky’s tax structure was structurally unsound–meaning it did not raise enough revenue to support the services the state had in place. The state uses a tax structure more suited to the industrial age and did not address or tax the growing service sector, the study found...

Good. And while they're at it, perhaps they can remove the inherently disequalizing property tax as the basis for funding Kentucky schools.

Ousted Board Member Blames Williams

As previously reported, former Kentucky Board of Education member Steve Neal lost his seat when Senate leadership chose not to bring his confirmation up for a vote. Since the law requires confirmation by both houses - Neal is out.

KSN&C tried to catch Neal over the past few days to ask for his thoughts on the dismissal but our schedules didn't mesh. Fortunately, Toni Konz caught up with him.

This from C-J:

Neal, who resigned as a registered lobbyist for the teachers union after his appointment but maintained his position as executive director, said yesterday that he blames Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.

"He played small-minded, petty politics instead of doing what was right for children in Kentucky," said Neal, a Democrat. "I had a bull's-eye on my forehead, and it was
put there by David Williams."

Neal said Williams wanted to privatize pension plans of state employees and proposed "devastating changes" to the state's health insurance -- two things the union successfully lobbied against.

"I am quite certain that this was a personal grudge against me and against JCTA," Neal said.

Williams did not return several calls for comment yesterday. He released a statement through Baez-Schrader saying that Senate leaders reviewed the resumes of all the appointees.

"The resumes were thoroughly reviewed in complete consultation with the Senate Democrats," Williams said. "The confirmations speak for themselves."

Governor Beshear expressed disappointment.

Today C-J's David Hawpe expressed something else.

At first blush, it looks like Steve Neal got a raw deal...

Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, harrumphed that, "up until Thursday (before adjournment) I was told there was not a problem. But then (Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, the minority leader) came up to me and told me that (Senate President) David Williams did not want to embarrass Steve Neal, but that his confirmation would not come up."...

Of course, one could just as easily argue that Neal made himself a target.

In addition to opposing Williams' ideas for changing the state's public pension and health insurance programs, Neal and other teachers union leaders saw to it that JCTA gave Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear almost $200,000 for his 2007 campaign.

That's the kind of thing likely to get the attention of Kentucky's most powerful state-based Republican....

If his recent attacks on Jefferson County Superintendent Sheldon Berman are any example, he would seem to know a lot about targeting one's opponents personally.

In the Jan. 21 edition of JCTA's "Action" newsletter, Neal mocked the superintendent, saying, "I can only describe Dr. Berman's dealings (with the county's teachers) as 'stink, stank, stunk,' We can only hope that he will stop pushing the heads of his employees beneath the cold, murky water and seek a better way to help them stay afloat."

Berman, he declared, was guilty of trying to "stick it to the little guy" while doing "nothing to help JCPS."

This is rhetoric more often associated with a Teamsters local, not the local teachers union. And I say that as the son of a Teamster.

Did Neal really think Republican lawmakers would forget his broadsides, including those in the Feb. 18 "Action" headlined "Proficiency on the Cheap," in which he claimed that the state's "decision-makers have no idea what it takes to teach children in our public schools?"

Maybe he really did expect them to laugh along with him, when they read this Neal put-down: "There are times I have chuckled when legislators blame (the Kentucky Education Reform Act) and teachers. I would love to put them in a classroom alone for one week and see how they fare."

Maybe he expected Williams and his GOP caucus to forget not only the serious policy differences and the teachers' huge Democratic political gifts but also Neal's taunt that
honchos in both parties were guilty of throwing "simple-minded solutions at complex socio-economic problems," as well as "rampant political posturing" and playing "the blame game."

That sounds like the kind of stuff I might throw around, but then I don't expect David Williams to have the Senate confirm me for the state school board. Or anything else...

Calipari to be Named Education Commissioner

"CATS" to remain as name for new accountability system

Frankfort — In a stunning move, the Kentucky Board of Education is poised to name John Calipari as the state’s next Commissioner of Education. The state board, meeting in Frankfort today for its monthly meeting, reportedly concluded negotiations with Calipari early this morning on his arrival in Lexington, where he rumored to be also considering some sort of part-time job with the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program.

State board Chairman Joe Brothers called the negotiations quick and easy. “I think the turning point was when we agreed to retain the name ‘CATS’ for the new school accountability system,” Brothers said, adding…

A little “APRIL FOOL!” humor from Brad Hughes at KSBA.

Easier Said Than Done

This from Chuck Asay by way of Slate:

Senate Bill 1 ends the CATS era. What will replace it?

By Skip Kifer

SB1 proposes a huge amount of testing. Some testing is statewide; other testing is not. Some tests are used for accountability purposes; others are not. Some tests are multiple- choice only; others are not. There are formative tests, summative tests, performance assessments, benchmark tests, interim tests, norm-referenced tests, criterion-referenced tests, end of course tests, and writing portfolios as well as program reviews and program audits which are used to measure students, schools and districts.

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is directed to integrate the testing into a new assessment system. It has almost three years to complete the task.

I doubt that a defensible new system can be created, even with that amount of time, without additional resources for KDE and more focused testing.

A first step to building a new assessment is to find out whether what is presently being done works. Major components of the existing system should be evaluated. For instance, EPAs - Explore, Plan and ACT - produces results presumed to help students learn and school personnel make better decisions. Does it? What is the evidence that the information is used? What is the evidence that using the evidence makes a difference? On what? Studies of each major component should provide answers to those or similar questions. If the component is not working, it should be eliminated.

There should be a thorough understanding of the implications of moving from an assessment system focused on schools to one focused on students. CATS relied on different forms of the test to get a better sample of achievement within a school. A student might spend an hour taking a test but with six forms of the test, the assessment contained about six times as much information for each school. Even with that, about 25% of schools were misclassified. Some were said to be progressing when they were not. Others were said to be needing assistance when they were progressing.

The existing assessment had thousands of misclassifications at the student level, too. Proposing to produce longitudinal data on students places more pressure on the assessment and more obstacles to accurate measurement. Creating measures that can be scaled across grades suggests spending more time testing each student. Is that desirable? Is it practicable?

Finally, the biggie! After almost two decades of educational reform with a spotlight on accountability through high-stakes testing, is their evidence that such testing works?

Research results both in Kentucky and nationally are mixed. Test scores go up but there are questions of whether that is mainly because of teaching to the test. Because what is taught and tested narrows, higher test scores may not mean mastery of a content area and may mean that content areas not tested are not emphasized. In addition, states with high-stakes testing do no better, and perhaps worse, on national tests than states without such programs. Reasonable persons would agree that test scores are, at best, a narrow reflection of successful schools. Other aspects are more important. Evidence should be collected, therefore, that indicates whether after about two decades of high-stakes testing Kentucky schools:

a) are better places for kids than they were prior to the reform;
b) nurture talent in ways that it should be nurtured; and
c) insure those who emerge from the school system have commitments to democratic ideals, participation in democratic communities, and tolerance for varied persons and views.

Armed with good evidence, resources and time, I hope KDE creates a system that benefits the Commonwealth and its children.

FLUNKED

This form the Paducah Sun:

Few lament the quietus of CATS

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and when politics is intertwined with education reform, you never know who you might wake up beside.

Take CATS, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System. On one side you’ll find the independent Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and the editorial pages of Kentucky’s two largest newspapers.

On the other side you’ll find the liberal Kentucky Education Association, conservative public policy advocacy groups, every Democrat in the Kentucky Legislature, along with every Republican. Oh, and The Paducah Sun.

Both houses of the general assembly unanimously — unanimously! — backed Sen. Ken Winters’ bill to ditch CATS in Kentucky’s public schools. According to the Associated Press, both chambers erupted into applause after the vote.

The test could be more accurately called CUTS, for Commonwealth Unreliable Testing Sham. The ineffective test does less to measure student progress than give an illusion of progress whether genuine or not. It should have been deep-sixed long ago.

The legislation calls for replacing CATS, which includes open-response questions and writing portfolios, with a national norm-referenced test, still administered at the end of the school year. Scoring open-response and essay questions is necessarily subjective, making it impossible to accurately measure progress or compare Kentucky students’ scores with scores from other states. Replacing CATS is long overdue.

But the (Louisville) Courier-Journal called norm-referenced tests “outmoded, ineffective” in a blistering editorial Friday railing against “conservative, educationally revanchist Republicans,” aided by “lazy” Democrats and a backward Kentucky Education Association opposed to “new ideas.” The editorial lumped the state’s public teachers together, saying they are “grateful for being allowed to escape real accountability.”

Ouch. Sounds like the editorial writers in Louisville are not playing well with others.

The editorial even lamented “the tragic evisceration of (CATS) writing portfolio provisions.” Tragic? Hardly. Tragic describes a fatal car wreck or tornado, not a policy change.

Those writing portfolios, by the way, will be retained as a teaching tool in grades 5-12, as they should be, just not as part of the assessment.

The Lexington Herald-Leader echoed its rival paper Sunday, adding Gov. Beshear and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, both Democrats, to the list of bad actors, accusing them of caving to “the worst impulses of both the teachers union and conservative enemies of public schools.”

That’s called painting with a broad brush.

The self-evident escapes CATS’ defenders on the two editorial boards: For any testing instrument to be useful in tracking progress and comparing performance, it must use objective and measurable criteria. If anything is “outmoded,” it is the trendy educational philosophy behind subjective testing methods, designed to elevate self-esteem above actual achievement.

Ironically, those states that consistently exceed the national averages in norm-referenced tests don’t complain that the tests are ineffective.

We admit we don’t always, or even often, agree with the Kentucky Education Association. But they’re right this time. CATS was a time-consuming exercise in futility, yielding little information useful for tailoring education plans to address individual student deficiencies.

The KEA supports the planned CATS replacement. The legislation calls for a test to allow both the schools and parents to better track student performance. A side benefit is that it will help identify teachers whose classes consistently exceed expectations and those that regularly fall short. Administrators can prescribe remediation for under-performing teachers — peer coaching, additional coursework — just as teachers do for under-performing students.

Only a few will mourn the demise of CATS. The rest of us dinosaurs — teachers, legislators and proponents of public school accountability, whether liberal or conservative — are happy to say “good riddance” to CATS.

Marcum Made his Mark in Marion

This from the Lebanon Enterprise:

Roger Marcum didn’t receive a very warm welcome when he was hired to be the Marion County Superintendent in 1999.

In fact, some people were downright cold to him.

Marcum vividly remembers the night the Marion County Board of Education hired him. At least 100 or more people had gathered in support of another candidate and the atmosphere was unpleasant, to say the least. His wife, Bobbie, came with him to the meeting, and as they drove home that night he noticed tears streaming down her face.

“They don’t seem to want us there,” she said.

But, a gut feeling told Marcum that Marion County was where he was meant to be. While he was a superintendent candidate finalist in two other counties at the time, Clark and Franklin, something was calling him to Marion County.

“This felt right,” he said. “I can’t explain it. But, I felt that this was a community that was hungry to move forward and they wanted the school district to help lead them.”

Under his leadership the Marion County School District’s student achievement has improved tremendously. Today, Marion County is No. 31 out of 175 school districts in the state, putting it in the top 20 percent of all Kentucky school districts.

So, as he prepares to leave Marion County and retire this year, it’s no surprise that many people don’t want to see him go...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Public Schools

This from the CEP:

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the economic stimulus ackage, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This law provides an unprecedented amount of federal funding for education. This summary describes the key components of the ARRA and discusses some of the implementation issues that are not yet decided.

Who Gets Title I Funds From the Economic Stimulus Package?

This CEP report examines the Title I funding provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Non-Union Teachers Forced to Pay JCTA

This from Toni at C-J:

Jefferson teachers, board OK 1 percent raise

Yearlong rift also resolved by pact

Teachers with Jefferson County Public Schools will get a 1 percent raise next year as part of an agreement that resolves a yearlong rift between their union and district officials.

The agreement, approved 6-1 last night by the school board, also ends the union's involvement in a pending lawsuit filed by 18 non-tenured teachers whose contracts weren't renewed in May because of performance issues.

Union members had complained that the district was getting rid of the teachers without trying to help them first, and from there the union's relationship with Superintendent Sheldon Berman steadily deteriorated.

"The war is over," Steve Neal, executive director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, said after the board meeting. "There are other things I would have liked, but for the most part, this is a good agreement."

The agreement, the result of four days of mediation, also requires nonunion teachers to pay part of their salary to the teachers association to cover the cost of representation.

That sparked protest from some teachers and prompted board Chairwoman Debbie Wesslund to vote against the agreement.

Sherry Hoza, a speech pathologist with the district, said the fee is tantamount to "forced unionism."

Roughly 5,700 district teachers are members of the union. Neal said about 300 to 400 aren't members.

The agreement establishes a new process for evaluating non-tenured teachers and will still allow Berman the option of not renewing their contracts for performance reasons....

Kentucky Fares Well in Upcoming Tech Report

This year’s Technology Counts report, titled Breaking Away From Tradition: E-Education Expands Opportunities for Raising Achievement, shows that Kentucky fares well compared to many other states. To move to the top rung of states, Kentucky would need to assess students' technology skills.

This from Education Week:

Breaking Away From Tradition
E-learning Opens New Doors to Raise Achievement

As the world of online education continues to evolve, brick-and-mortar schools are incorporating digital curricula and virtual teachers into their classrooms in ways that have surprised even the advocates of the online education movement.

Once mostly catering to advanced students who educators believed had the motivation to pursue education online, virtual courses are growing in popularity for struggling students, too. And school districts and teachers that once felt threatened by the surge of online education are embracing the technology, often in a hybrid model that blends face-to-face learning with digital teaching and curricula.

A 2009 report from the Sloan Consortium, a Needham, Mass.-based advocacy group for online education, found that the number of K-12 students using online courses rose to more than a million public school students during the 2007-08 school year. That was a 47 percent increase from 2005-06. ...

Texting, cell phones a growing problem for high school staff

This from the Springfield Sun:

Cell phones are one of the most convenient modern devices in the world today, but for many schools, they are also a growing problem.

Washington County High School Principal Leon Smith said his school has had some recent incidents, and many of them have stemmed from the use of cell phones and text messaging.

“We’ve had some situations where we’ve had a few more fights than normal,” Smith said Monday. “It seems most of them stem from some type of text message sent over the weekend or the night before, and many times to multiple recipients, and they get blown out of proportion.”

Smith said messages are sometimes confrontational, and when the students arrive at school, that is the first opportunity they have to settle the problem, and it becomes a school problem...

... “It’s not just our school, but across the state and the nation, cell phones are becoming more of a problem when they are used to send rumors, hateful messages, or even details about where and when other students may get into a fight,” Smith said. “I’m afraid parents don’t realize the seriousness of cell phones in a school building. The cell phone is meant for good, but some teens have turned it into something that could be dangerous.”

It’s not just text messages, but also photos that are a growing concern for school staff members when it comes to cell phones. A new trend known as “sexting” involves a sexually explicit photo being sent via cell phone, and Smith said he sees more explicit messages each day as phones are confiscated.

“I’m blown away with the types of messages some of these kids are sending. We don’t take phones to read text messages, but some are willing to review messages with us, and the language and context some of the things are being said in these messages is so inappropriate. Parents really need to be aware what their teens are sending and receiving on their phones.” ...

Report Cards Give Up A’s and B’s for 4s and 3s

This from the New York Times, photo by Suzanne DeChillo:

PELHAM, N.Y. — There is no more A for effort at Prospect Hill Elementary School.

Parents have complained that since the new grading system is based on year-end expectations, 4s are generally not available until the final marking period.

In fact, there are no more A’s at all. Instead of letter grades in English or math, schoolchildren in this well-to-do Westchester suburb now get report cards filled with numbers indicating how they are faring on dozens of specific skills like “decoding strategies” and “number sense and operations.” The lowest mark, 1, indicates a student is not meeting New York State’s academic standards, while the top grade of 4 celebrates “meeting standards with distinction.”

They are called standards-based report cards, part of a new system flourishing around the country as the latest frontier in a 20-year push to establish rigorous academic standards and require state tests on the material.

Educators praise them for setting clear expectations, but many parents who chose to live in Pelham because of its well-regarded schools find them confusing or worse. Among their complaints are that since the new grades are based on year-end expectations, 4s are generally not available until the final marking period (school officials are planning to tweak this aspect next year).

“We’re running around the school saying ‘2 is cool,’ ” said Jennifer Lapey, a parent who grew up in Pelham, “but in my world, 2 out of 4 is not so cool.” ...

Massachusetts Goes to a Value-Added Assessment

Mitchell Chester continues to innovate in Massachusetts. This week he introduced a type of value-added assessment system - the kind Kentucky should now be considering.

Oh by the way... he's the guy the Kentucky Board of Education should have hired instead of flirting with Barbara Erwin.

This from the Boston Globe:

Mass plans to track students' progress, not just scores

MALDEN—Each fall when the state releases MCAS scores, principals often blame a dip in scores on the students, tactfully arguing that the class in question was perhaps not as superb a group of mathematicians or voracious readers as their predecessors.

State education leaders plan to inject a reality check this fall into the "good class
vs bad class" debate by tracking the performance of individual students as they advance from one grade to the next. The new measurement could shed light on who is falling short -- teacher or pupil -- and lead to fundamental changes in the way students are taught.

Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said yesterday that the new analysis will make it harder for local school leaders to be dismissive of poor test scores.

"It takes away a lot of the excuse-making," Chester said at yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education where the new system was unveiled.

Under the current system, the state judges a school's success by comparing its MCAS scores at each particular grade level to the scores posted by that grade the year before. The English and math MCAS tests are given in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10.

Many teachers and adminstrators have chastized the approach as an apples-and-oranges comparison because the variation could simply reflect a class of particularly gifted or challenged students. The problem can be especially acute at small schools, where there are only a few dozen students at each grade level and the performance of a handful of students can create dramatic shifts.

Using the new tool, the state will augment that analysis by examining the performance of individual students or classes of students over the period of several years, starting in the third-grade.

The examination of current and past scores will allow them to predict students' likelihood for improvement in the future and assess whether they are on track to meet expectations. If a number of a students at a particular school are exceeding the statistical predictions, that could indicate that the administrators and teachers there have identified promising teaching methods. If a number of students are falling short of predictions, that would indicate there could be a problem...

Former Bullitt educator pleads guilty to rape, sodomy charges

This from the Pioneer News:

SHEPHERDSVILLE - An educator in both Bullitt and Nelson counties has admitted his guilty to rape and sodomy charges dating back to 1993.

Larry Brent Childress, 41, of Pioneer Village, entered the plea Thursday morning in Bullitt Circuit Court.

Childress was indicted last fall for rape and sodomy. Two of the charges were dismissed and two others were amended.

Childress could face up to eight years in prison.

According to the plea agreement between special prosecutor Todd Lewis of the state attorney general's office and defense attorney Joseph Wantland, Childress could ask for probation at the May 21 final sentencing. Lewis said he would not oppose the probation but would ask that the defendant serve at least 120 days in the county jail.

As the victim looked on, Childress admitted that he knew that she was under 16 years of age at the time of their sexual encounter in 1993; however, the then-assistant coach at North Bullitt High did not know she was under 14.

The allegations occurred from 1993 until 1995 in Bullitt, Jefferson and Fayette counties...

Doctors will look at icy pool option for high school athletes

This from the Herald-Leader:

LOUISVILLE — Physicians on a Kentucky Medical Association committee will conduct immediate research so that they can advise Kentucky High School coaches
on the best way to react to heat illnesses by the time warm-weather athletic practices begin, committee chairman James Bowles said Thursday.

One option is whether coaches should make sure that they have an icy pool available to athletes — a provision that was recently cut from legislation in the General Assembly because certified trainers and physicians worried that coaches wouldn't know how to use the pools properly.

Bowles, a Madisonville physician, heads a KMA committee that advises the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on medical matters.

He said that to meet the requirements of a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Steve Beshear, members of the committee also plan to develop an online course for coaches by midsummer.

The law requires medical and safety training for coaches by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, as well as mandating that a trained coach be present at all practices and competitions...

Obama: Bad teachers must be taken out of classroom

This from Google News:

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the nation's schools are going to see improvement, President Barack Obama says there has to be a way to ease bad teachers out of the classroom.

Obama was responding Thursday to a question from a Philadelphia-area schoolteacher. The woman looked away and refused to answer when Obama asked if she'd seen any teachers whose work was so bad she wouldn't want her own children in that class.

Obama said some people just aren't meant to be teachers.

He also said there needs to be other ways to evaluate teachers besides standardized tests. He said those tests can't measure progress in a struggling school, and that they represent the biggest flaw in the No Child Left Behind program.

Obama said that if teachers are forced to teach based solely on a test, fewer students will be inspired to learn.

Iowa dropout rate climbs with more accurate counting

This from The Des Moines Register

...Last year was the first time all Iowa students were assigned an identification number, which likely provided the state with the most accurate numbers it has had.The data showed that Iowa's largest urban school districts - Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines and Waterloo - reported the highest percentage of dropouts. The majority of Iowa's rural and suburban districts reported no dropouts or significantly smaller numbers.

Nationally, 9.3 percent of high school students dropped out in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available...

...The stakes are high. A study by the nation's largest teachers' union showed dropouts earn about $260,000 less during their lives than high school graduates. A separate analysis estimated that dropouts from the class of 2006-07 will cost the United States more than $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. That's why educators in school districts across the country say they are continuing to develop new programs aimed at lowering the dropout rate...

States eye education stimulus to fill budget gaps

“We’re putting out literally billions of dollars.

We’re also holding back billions of dollars.

If we see states doing things that don’t make sense

and aren’t in the spirit of what this [stimulus aid] is about,

they would put themselves in jeopardy

of receiving the second set of money.”

-- Education Secretary Arne Duncan

This from Michele McNeil At Ed Week by way of KSBA:

Local officials crying foul as governors grab for aid

Desperate for cash to fill growing budget deficits, state governments are starting to tangle with federal and local officials over a $39.8 billion pot of economic-stimulus money that was designed to prop up the budgets of local school districts, but is increasingly being eyed as a patch for states’ own financial woes.

Vague language and loopholes in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the stimulus package signed into law in February by President Barack Obama—are sparking questions about how much discretion states have over education stimulus funding. Mayors and school boards in a number of states fear being shortchanged by revenue-hungry governors and legislatures.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is putting state-level officials on notice that spending the first chunk of stimulus money unwisely could jeopardize aid that his office will distribute later.

“If states are doing things that are not in the best interests of children, they are just very simply going to disqualify themselves and take themselves out of the running for billions of dollars,” Mr. Duncan said in an interview last week.

Examples of such power struggles are piling up across the country.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, wants to cut state education funding in the next budget year by about $37 million, free up that money for other purposes, and use federal stimulus money to fill in the education gaps.

In Kansas, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who has been tapped to become Mr. Obama’s secretary of health and human services, is objecting to the legislature’s pursuit of $26 million in K-12 cuts to help shore up the state’s $680 million budget deficit, even as Kansas is expecting about $387 million in federal education stimulus aid.

And in Ohio, under a new funding formula proposed by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, some districts would get little or no additional money over the next two fiscal years, even though they’re supposed to get a boost from the stimulus package through the federal Title I and special education programs...

Elaine Farris Finalist for Clark County Top Spot

As the first African American Superintendent in Kentucky Elaine Farris is an historic figure. But as Interim Education Commissioner, she agreed not to pursue the permanent position, leaving the board of education unencumbered in its search for the next Commish.

When the superintendency in her home county opened last December, Farris spoke to KSN&C off the record; so we couldn't say anything. Now that Clark County has named her as a finalist its hard to imagine a more qualified candidate.

In fact, one needn't imagine. The Winchester Sun reports:

Five candidates picked for superintendent

The finalists for the Clark County school superintendent position include the state’s interim education commissioner, the district’s operations director and a former principal of Fannie Bush Elementary.

The five finalists were announced Thursday, before the first interview this evening with Paul Christy, the district’s operations director. The other four finalists will be interviewed by the board members next week.

The board has been gearing up for the search process since Superintendent Ed Musgrove announced his resignation in December after three years leading the district.

The initial advertisement of the open position garnered 21 applicants, which a screening committee of school officials, district employees and a parent representative whittled down to five recommendations to the board members. The board then invited the five finalists to interview.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a great decision when we come out of this,” board chair Judy Hicks said. The board hopes to have a superintendent hired by mid-April...

The finalists are:

Elaine Farris: appointed interim education commissioner in January after Commissioner Jon Draud resigned due to health concerns. She was also superintendent of Shelby County’s school system for four years. Farris started as a physical education teacher at Odell Gross Elementary in 1982, before moving to George Rogers Clark High School in 1989. In 1993, she became an assistant principal at GRC. She spent three years as principal of Shearer Elementary before becoming elementary school director for the Fayette County District. (In the interest of full disclosure, Elaine and I worked together in Fayette County. She has been my boss, my student and my colleague. She understands leadership and working with people. Any district would be fortunate to sign her.)

Paul Christy: has worked in Clark County since June 2006 and is responsible for the district’s
transportation, maintenance, staffing allocations, district athletics and purchasing; Served as principal of Frankfort Independent High School for two years, was assistant principal at Franklin County High School for a year prior to that and was principal at Bath County High School for five years. His educational career started as a technology education teacher at Bath County High School.

Lisa Stone: "is presently the education leader" (sic) for the Kentucky Association of School Councils. She taught in Clay County; worked in Clark County for 11 years before becoming principal of Fannie Bush Elementary in 1990. In 1994, she started working in Fayette County as principal at Rosa Parks Elementary and as an elementary school director. (In the interest of full disclosure, Lisa and I worked together in Fayette County.)

Donald F. Aldridge: Superintendent of Eminence Independent School District for three years, following seven years as assistant principal and principal in Estill and Lee counties. He began as a math teacher in Irvine in 1994, according to his resume.

Stephen Dickerson of North Vernon, Ind.: The only out-of-state finalist. He is the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Jennings County, Ind., school district since February 2000. He spent 17 years as a high school principal between three Indiana schools as well as three years as an assistant principal and athletic director. He also spent seven years as a science teacher and coach in Indiana

The State Journal's take:

Interim education chief applies for new job

Interim Education Commissioner Elaine Farris is a finalist for a job as school superintendent in Clark County.

The Winchester Sun reports that Farris and four others are being considered for the position in the central Kentucky district of 6,000 students.

Clark County Superintendent Ed Musgrove announced his resignation in December 2008, effective June 30.

If Farris were to leave her post as interim commissioner before a commissioner is hired, the Kentucky Board of Education would name another interim, said Lisa Gross, director of communications for the Kentucky Department of Education.

Farris, deputy education commissioner for the Bureau of Learning and Results Services, was named interim education commissioner in January. Her duties overseeing the state's public education system began Feb. 1...

Gross said Farris, a native of Clark County, notified the Board of Education early on that she would apply for the position if it came open.

"We are not concerned," Gross said. "We support her in whatever endeavor she wants to take."

Senate Gives Ky Board Member Steven Neal the Heave Ho Without Lifting a Finger

Now "former" Kentucky Board of Education member Steven B. Neal failed to gain confirmation from the Kentucky Senate yesterday. This follows his unanimous approval in the House.

Lacking confirmation in both houses, Neal is no longer a member of the board.

This apparently occurred when the Senate declined to present or act upon a resolution confirming his appointment.

KDE spokesperson Lisa Gross told KSN&C,

"What I can say about that is that he is no longer a member of the board. The Governor may appoint someone to replace him, and that person would serve unconfirmed until the next session of the General Assembly."

According to Mark Hebert a number of Governor Beshear's appointments to important state boards lost their seats because the House or Senate failed to confirm their appointments.

The republican controlled Senate adjourned after approving four of the five members of the Kentucky Board of Education who were up for confirmation. The odd man out is a union man, Steve Neal, who is the Executive Director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.

So Steve Neal was simply left behind.

Governor Beshear's spokesperson, Jay Blanton told KSN&C,

“We will be going back now as quickly as possible to review potential appointments for this important position at a critical time in the effort to move forward with school reforms. We’re disappointed that Steve was not confirmed as he already had, in a very short period of time, made significant contributions to the school board.”