The Public University: Recalling Higher Education’s Democratic Purpose

This by Michael T. Benson and Hal R. Boyd at the NEA:

Michael T. Benson

The modern university has been called, “a series of separate schools and departments held together by a central heating system,” and, in a play on this line, “a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over parking."¹ Whether parking, heating, or, more probable today, WiFi, these tongue-in-cheek caricatures belie a more serious worry that higher education is rudderless, lacking a unifying raison d’etre. Across the U.S., pockets of politicians view higher education in economic terms, seeking to peg public funding to the size of post-graduation salaries or other criteria ostensibly focused on outcomes more than inputs.² Professors and administrators, at times at odds with this perspective on higher education, see cultivating critical thinking as college’s central purpose.³ Meanwhile, student feedback demonstrates the vital role relationships play in university life.⁴ These and other visions of higher education may initially appear to conflict; yet, we argue that they often operate in concert to serve higher education’s broader public purpose—that of supporting our national democracy.

In Derek Bok’s Higher Education in America, the former president of Harvard ⁵ “Until the Civil War,” he writes, “most colleges in this country [had] only one aim—to educate an elite group of young men for the learned professions and positions of leadership in society.”⁶ Institutions such as Harvard and Yale strove to “discipline the mind and build the character of their students” through “strict disciplinary code[s]” and “compulsory attendance at chapel.”⁷ In the early years of the Republic, however, this monolithic, ecclesiastical form of education began to bifurcate. By the mid-19th century, new ideas about the role of college gained support.

Hal R. Boyd

University divides the historical aims of the American academy into several distinct periods.

As industrialization and agriculture expanded, demand increased for training in the so-called practical sciences. Benjamin Franklin and the leaders of what became the University of Pennsylvania had anticipated this shift by founding an institution to teach “those things that are likely to be most useful,” in addition to the “most ornamental.”⁸

This kind of vocational-minded schooling would later inspire the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 (discussed below), which subsidized the creation of public agricultural and industrial colleges across the U.S. Within only a few decades, other pragmatic programs launched in “domestic science, engineering, business administration, physical education, teacher training, and sanitation and public health.”⁹

Around the same time, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) proliferated as a result of the Second Morrill Act. The Act required states to either eliminate race as part of admissions criteria or provide a separate state-sponsored institution for African Americans. Finally, in the late 19th century, universities undertook more rigorous scientific research. In 1873, the wealthy bachelor Johns Hopkins bequeathed his fortune to fund a college that made its purpose the discovery of new knowledge.¹⁰ Other schools such as Harvard and the University of Chicago followed by awarding Ph.D. degrees and engaging in extensive scientific inquiry. The American research university was born.

Today, many post-secondary schools trace their origins to one or more of the aforementioned movements. However, in narrating the sweeping genesis of contemporary higher education, scholars tend to overlook the democratic ethos woven into its history. In this article we highlight three figures—George Washington, Justin S. Morrill, and Harry S. Truman—and discuss how they envisioned higher education fostering more fulsome democratic engagement, raising the country’s global reputation, cultivating goodwill between states and nations, and expanding opportunities for more Americans. From the founding years of the early Republic, to the Civil War and World War II, they lived during some of America’s most tumultuous times. Their efforts solidified the long-standing democratic purpose of higher education that still informs its mission today. And yet, as we discuss, when it comes to increasing opportunities for the most economically disadvantaged, higher education desperately needs to regain this democratic vision.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Some of America’s greatest proponents of public higher education were themselves not college graduates. Harry S. Truman, for example, was the only U. S. president of the 20th century without a college degree, yet he established the highly influential Commission on Higher Education and helped administer the G.I. Bill. These initiatives marked “a substantial shift in the nation’s expectation about who should attend college.”¹¹ Likewise, U.S. Senator Justin S. Morrill of Vermont was a self-educated merchant and the champion of legislation that helped establish public universities in every state in the union. George Washington’s schooling was similarly limited, but he became the early Republic’s most prominent proponent of a national university and, among the founders, was arguably second only to Thomas Jefferson in promoting civic-minded higher education.¹²

From the beginning of Washington’s presidency to the end of his life, establishing a national university remained a primary focus. Not only did he publicly promote the idea, but he also donated seed money.¹³ Washington’s rhetoric on the subject suggests he hoped a national university would assuage inter-colonial discord and ensure that the nation’s future leaders learned a uniquely American political curriculum. In his mind, teaching republican principles and constitutional governance was as vital to protecting liberty as maintaining a skilled army.

Furthermore, Washington’s own lack of formal education likely influenced his crusade to secure for others (albeit exclusively white males) the opportunities he himself never possessed. As one biographer observed, not attending college was “a deficiency that haunted him throughout his subsequent career.”¹⁴ Whether haunting or not, his academic background differed from those around him. Thomas Jefferson, for example, studied at the College of William and Mary and read law under the famous George Wythe; John Adams attended Harvard and learned law from John Putnam; James Madison went to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and spent a post-graduate stint studying with the school’s president John Witherspoon. Both Alexander Hamilton and John Jay attended King’s College (now Columbia). Washington undoubtedly observed the role that his colleagues’ educations had on our nation’s founding.

Although the idea of a national university was discussed by Benjamin Rush and later by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Washington resurrected the proposition throughout his presidency.¹⁵ In his First Annual Message to Congress he observed, “There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of Science and Literature.” The acquisition of knowledge, he continued, was the “surest basis of public happiness” and essential to the “security of a free Constitution.”16 Whether Congress should help support existing schools or fund a new national university he left to their discretion. Yet, four years later, in correspondence with John Adams, he was unequivocal that “a national University in this country is a thing to be desired.”¹⁷
Washington again returned to the idea in his Eighth Annual Address to Congress: “I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Congress, the expediency of establishing a National University; and also a Military Academy.” As he saw it, the former was important not only for “National prosperity and reputation” but also to prepare the “future guardians of the liberties” in the “science of Government.” Meanwhile, the military academy would secure freedom through creating “an adequate stock of Military knowledge for emergencies.”¹⁸

Washington wished to insert similar ideas in his canonical Farewell Address, but Hamilton—who helped draft it—thought the proposal was best discussed in his annual message to Congress.¹⁹ For his part, Washington continued to promote the plan well into retirement and went so far as to bequeath “fifty shares which I hold in the Potomac Company … towards the endowment of a UNIVERSITY to be established within the limits of the District of Columbia.”²⁰ Congress eventually enacted the proposal for a military academy in 1802, but Washington’s dream for a national university never came to fruition. It remained a matter of congressional debate well into the late-19th century and is still discussed today.²¹ Washington understood how a public university could benefit students, boost prosperity, enhance the nation’s global standing, and help diminish provincial tendencies. Along with Rush, Jefferson, Madison, and others, he crystallized the idea that higher education was a public good that could help shape the nation’s “future guardians of the liberties.”

JUSTIN MORRILL AND UNIVERSITIES FOR STUDENTS OF TOIL

More than half a century after Washington’s death, Congress passed the single most significant legislation for the democratization of higher education. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 apportioned to each state endowments of land to be sold and used for the “support, and maintenance of at least one college” that—without excluding classical studies—would focus mainly on agricultural and mechanical arts, as well as military instruction.²² It is hard to overstate the public and private impact of this new “liberal and practical education” tailored for the “industrial classes.”²³
Today, the original land-grant universities have graduated countless civil servants, business leaders, and luminaries in the arts and sciences. Alumni include more than 500 Rhodes Scholars, 500 federal legislators, 200 governors, and a handful of U.S Supreme Court justices, vice presidents, and foreign heads of state.²⁴ Over the years, hundreds of Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel laureates have affiliated with these institutions as students, professors, and researchers.²⁵ Currently, the CEOs of Apple, Walmart, Ford, Verizon, BP, Berkshire Hathaway, McKesson, and Koch Industries²⁶—eight of the globe’s largest companies²⁷—are land-grant alumni. The aggregate endowments of the schools total more than $64 billion,28 and by a conservative estimate they annually educate more than 1.5 million students. In short, these institutions significantly impact the nation and the everyday lives and careers of Americans.

In Congress, few probably foresaw the long-term significance of the measure when it passed amidst the turbulence of the Civil War. If anyone sensed its importance, however, it was Justin S. Morrill, the congressman who championed the measure. Born in 1810 in Strafford, Vermont, Morrill came from hardscrabble circumstances with little formal schooling. He received a basic elementary education and then attended local academies (akin to high schools) for two terms.²⁹ On the advice of his lifelong mentor Judge Jedediah H. Harris, Morrill took a job as a local merchant’s clerk. Though his formal schooling ended early, he never lost an innate autodidacticism. He borrowed books from Harris on “the History of England, . . . Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, the Federalist, and various Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper novels.”³⁰ While working in Maine he took a class in bookkeeping and spent his Sundays devoted “to study or general reading.”³¹ He later reflected that it took “a long time and much labor” to gain the education he acquired and that “it was a great disadvantage to me that I could not go to school.”³²

His initial arguments for the “college act” in the U.S. House of Representatives centered on the economic gains that would come by way of better agricultural education. “Other nations lead us … in nearly all the practical sciences which can be brought to aid the management and results of agricultural labor,” he lamented. “We owe it to ourselves not to become a weak competitor in the most important field where we are to meet the world as rivals.”³³ He also made a broader moral appeal for the measure: “We have schools to teach the art of manslaying and make masters of ‘deep-throated engines’ of war, and shall we not have schools to teach men the way to feed, clothe, and enlighten the great brotherhood of man?”³⁴

In the Senate, Morrill found an ally in Iowa Republican James Harlan. As if to complement the economic arguments, Harlan discussed how the measure also expanded educational opportunities. “The passage of this bill will be one step in the right direction,” he said to the Senate. “It will be, in effect, a declaration that Congress will no longer discriminate against the people; that the masses, on whose shoulders have been imposed the burdens, shall participate in the enjoyment of some of the advantages of Government.”³⁵ The measure passed both chambers but President James Buchanan vetoed the bill on constitutional grounds—Congress, he felt, did not possess the power to intervene so directly in the state’s affairs.

Later, as a member of the Senate, Morrill reintroduced a revised version of the bill in 1862. In light of the Civil War, the new bill provided the colleges would also teach military tactics. He once again marshaled arguments about national competitiveness and the need to stave off the deleterious effects of soil depletion. This time he also expressed the bill’s attempt to make education affordable to America’s “sons of toil.” Harlan similarly defended the measure as a way to help “the children of the nation.” The bill passed and was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln just weeks before the battle of Antietam, the deadliest day of the Civil War. As one historian put it, the Land-Grant Act “forced education to fit the changing social and economic patterns of an expanding nation. It helped to create equality of educational opportunity by offering education at public expense to the industrial classes; it gave some measure of dignity to the vocations pursued by such classes.”³⁶

The Act also proved important to the country’s military efforts well beyond the Civil War. Officers from the schools served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. In the early 20th century, the campus programs evolved into the now-familiar Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). With the outbreak of World War II, thousands of ROTC officers helped America’s initial mobilization. More than a decade later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower bore witness of the “efficacy of that training” and the “great services” the land-grant officers “rendered to the United States of America on the field of battle.”³⁷ In addition to military training, Land-Grant scientists engaged in agricultural and engineering research to aid the war effort. Thanks to the G.I. Bill, these schools would greatly expand as they provided an educational landing place for thousands of World War II’s returning G.I.s.

THE TRUMAN COMMISSION AND EXPANDING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

During 1943, the American Legion promoted legislation that eventually became The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (known today as the G.I. Bill). The primary author of the legislation was American Legion leader Henry Walter Colmery. Pitched as a “square deal” for veterans, the bill included, among other benefits, unprecedented educational subsidies for the nation’s returning veterans. The measure passed unanimously through both chambers, and—one week after D-day—President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law. “Ultimately,” scholar Suzanne Mettler writes, “more than twice as many veterans used the higher education provisions than the most daring predictions officials had forecast.”38 By the expiration of the first bill in 1956, nearly half of the 16 million World War II veterans received some kind of educational training through the program.39 In 1947 alone, G.I.s accounted for nearly half of all students enrolled in American colleges.40 Given this remarkable growth in the nation’s post-secondary schools, President Harry S. Truman organized the President’s Commission on Higher Education.

Despite having never completed a college degree, Truman, like Washington, led some of the most sagacious and highly educated minds of his age. The cabinet he inherited upon President Roosevelt’s passing included Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (a student of Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania); Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson (a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School); Attorney General Francis Biddle (who graduated from Harvard with both undergraduate and law degrees); and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (who did the same at the University of Chicago). While a young captain in World War I, Truman grasped the value of a college degree when—as a self-described “old rube”—he was assigned to lead infantry training for “Harvard and Yale boys.”41 Little did he know then that such experiences might come in handy for his not-so-dissimilar role 27 years later.

Though Truman did not graduate from college, he held strong convictions about expanding the citizenry’s access to post-secondary opportunities. Addressing graduates at Howard University, the historically black university in Washington, D.C., he expressed remorse at the thought that some of the graduates could be denied opportunities to use their new skills due to racial prejudice. “I wasn’t able to go to college at all,” he confessed. “I had to stay at home and work on the family farm.” While some are denied opportunities for “economic reasons,” he explained, still others are denied opportunities “because of racial prejudice and discrimination.” He continued: “I want to see things worked out so that everyone who is capable of it receives a good education. I want to see everyone have a chance to put his education to good use, without unfair discrimination.”⁴¹ These sentiments exemplified the work of the President’s Commission on Higher Education, which became known colloquially as the Truman Commission.

Assembled in 1946 and active until its last report in 1948, the Commission contained “outstanding civic and educational leaders,” and Truman charged the group with examining “the functions of higher education in our democracy” as well as “the means by which [the functions] can best be performed.”⁴³ The result was a widely praised and scrutinized six-volume report titled Higher Education for American Democracy. The work laid out a philosophical vision for American higher education and provided practical recommendations to confront both contemporary challenges as well as those on the nation’s horizon. “Long ago our people recognized that education for all is not only democracy’s obligation but its necessity,” the report stated. “Education is the foundation of democratic liberties. Without an educated citizenry alert to preserve and extend freedom, it would not long endure.”⁴⁴

Around the same time, and only five years before the famous desegregation case Brown v. Board, W. E. B. Du Bois remarked, “Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental.”45 These sentiments echoed those articulated in the U.S. more than a century-and-a-half earlier, and yet sadly for most black Americans the struggle for equal educational opportunities was just beginning. In another particularly prescient passage, the Commission’s report warned what bears repeating today: “If the ladder of educational opportunity rises high at the doors of some youth and scarcely rises at all at the doors of others, while at the same time formal education is made a prerequisite to occupational and social advance, then education may become the means, not of eliminating race and class distinctions, but of deepening and solidifying them.”⁴⁶ Preventing this phenomenon is just as important to strengthening democracy at home in the 21st century as it was in the 20th.⁴⁷

HIGHER EDUCATION’S CONTEMPORARY RESPONSIBILITIES TO DEMOCRACY

For Washington and his contemporaries, the case for higher education was not only about “prosperity,” but also about educating youth for political participation, raising the country’s international standing, and diminishing provincialism. For Morrill and his allies, investment in higher education promised to yield agricultural and economic returns and help the nation remain globally competitive; but it was equally about expanding opportunity for the “sons of toil” and helping “enlighten the great brotherhood of man.” For Truman and his commission, economics and global competiveness played a role, but more important were the ways higher education could help sustain democracy through global understanding and expanded educational access. “Equal opportunity for all persons, to the maximum of their individual abilities and without regard to economic status, race, creed, color, sex, national origin, or ancestry is a major goal of American democracy,” the report stated.⁴⁸

Contemporary universities still aim to boost individual success. Data shows that, even with troubling tuition hikes, the long-term financial returns from a college education far exceed the individual monetary investment for most students.⁴⁹ Campus startup incubators and industrial collaboration initiatives help turn university research and innovation into products, services, and new businesses that help grow local and national economies. Colleges and universities also aim to provide high quality general education and create a campus atmosphere that prepares students for life-long civic engagement and sustained pro-social behavior. Aside from the obvious societal benefits that come with educated surgeons, judges, engineers, and others, studies suggest that those who attend college exhibit increased levels of political participation and are more likely to attend churches and become involved in various social causes.⁵⁰College graduates exhibit better health and contribute to the state through paying their taxes.⁵¹ Meanwhile, study abroad programs and international students help spread goodwill overseas as the nation’s research production continues to bolster its global reputation.⁵²

By these and other metrics, contemporary universities are fulfilling, or actively striving to fulfill, the democratic missions outlined by the likes of Washington, Morrill, and Truman. Fully detailing the promises and perils of contemporary higher education within our democracy deserves more space than we dedicate here.53 Suffice it to say however, that in some areas universities are faltering and need major improvement. A recent report by the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education says that while the rate of affluent students graduating from college has gone from 40 percent in the 1970s to 77 percent today, the rate has only increased from six percent to nine percent for low-income students over the same period.⁵⁴ Other reports have questioned such figures, putting the graduation rate closer to 17 percent for the lowest quintile of students.⁵⁵ Even these and other more conservative estimates are sobering in light of the Truman Commission’s call nearly 70 years ago to expand opportunity “without regard to economic status.” Commenting on the state of inequality in the U. S., the chancellor of the University System of Maryland, William E. Kirwan, recently remarked:
Our public universities—especially our public flagship campuses—have the obligation to help expand access to higher education for more low-income, first-generation, and non-traditional students . . . not just those students fortunate enough to win some sort of “lottery of birth.” Our flagship campuses have the broad statewide reach and historic responsibility embedded in our Land Grant traditions to take on this challenge and help reestablish the American Dream for the millions of people who have seen that dream become a nightmare. There can be no more important responsibility and calling, nor a priority more critical for the long-term success and prosperity of our state and nation.⁵⁶

If our system of higher education is to live up to its legacy of supporting democracy and improving the minds and lives of all able and willing citizens, we must solve this challenge. The university, after all, is more than just a place for scholars to share a heating system or a common grievance over parking. It is a sanctuary of citizenship where young and old come to expand their skills, broaden their horizons, and prepare themselves for the rigors of 21st century citizenship. Washington, Morrill, and Truman never graduated from college, but they understood better than most that the aims of democracy are inextricably connected with the aims of the nation’s universities. The Morrill Land-Grant Act passed amidst the Civil War while the G.I. Bill came during World War II. This history teaches us that our contemporary political and economic challenges do not serve as a ready excuse to jettison our nation’s democratic ideal for higher education; rather, daunting difficulties should remind us just how important it is to recapture the democratic purpose of higher education in America.

Michael T. Benson is president and professor of government at Eastern Kentucky University. Hal R. Boyd is a J.D. candidate at Yale Law School. He and Dr. Benson are currently writing a book on the democratic purpose of higher education. The authors thank Richard Day, Mary Ellen Flannery, Jennifer Muse, Luis Proenza, Gerald Sherratt, and Wayne Watkins for valuable contributions to various iterations of the piece.

Endnotes
1. The former quotation is attributed to Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago and the latter comes from Clark Kerr, former president of U.C. Berkley. See Kerr, The Uses of the University, p. 15.
2. A majority of states now allocate at least some funding for higher education based on institutional performance matrix. See “Performance-Based Funding For Higher Education.”
3. Stassen et al. “Defining Critical Thinking in Higher Education,” p. 126.
4. See generally Chambliss, How College Works.
5. Bok, Higher Education in America.
6. Ibid, p. 28.
7. Ibid, p. 29.
8. Franklin, “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania.”
9. Bok, op cit.
10. Gilman, “Inaugural Address of Daniel Coit Gilman as first president of The Johns Hopkins University.”
11. Hutcheson, “The Truman Commission’s Vision of the Future,” p. 107.
12. Thomas Jefferson founded one of the first public universities in the U.S., the University of Virginia. He considered the university, including its iconic architectural design, one of his greatest accomplishments in life. It was there he also developed a unique model for higher education, focusing on equipping leaders with tools for political participation and allowing students to elect courses. Jefferson’s passion for a civic-minded education is best captured in his famous “Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge.” While the Virginia legislative proposal did not pass, it still serves to document Jefferson’s vision for eduation in the Republic. “[I]t is believed,” he said, “that the most effectual means of preventing [Tyranny] would be to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large...it is generally true that people will be happiest whose laws are best, and are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting the public happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens...” 18 June 1779, Founders Online. For more on Jefferson’s views on education and the early Republic, see generally Roth’s Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters.
13. See Washington, “George Washington to The Commissioners of The Federal District, January 28, 1795,” p. 36. See also Washington, “George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, March 15, 1795,” p. 51.
14. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington, p. 9.
15. See Thomas, The Founders and the Idea of a National University: Constituting the American Mind; see also Castel, “The Founding Fathers and the Vision of a National University,” pp. 280-302.
16. Washington, “First Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union, January 8, 1790.”
17. Washington, “To John Adams from George Washington, 15 November 1794.”
18. Washington, “Eighth Annual Message, December 7, 1796.”
19. Washington, “To Alexander Hamilton, September 1, 1796,” p. 267 and Hamilton, “From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, September 4, 1796,” p. 316.
20. “George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, July 9, 1799,” pp. 479-511.
21. Carey, “Fulfill George Washington’s last wish—a national university.”
22. Morrill Act of 1862, Public Law 37-108, U.S. Statutes at Large 12 (1862), p. 503.
23. Ibid.
24. Estimates based on information from “Colleges and Universities with U.S. Rhodes Scholarship Winners”; “Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-Present”; and “Biographical Directory of Federal Judges.”
25. Statistics gathered from “Past winners and finalists by category”; and “All Nobel Peace Prizes.”
26. Information obtained from company biographies and other publicly available sources.
27. In 2014 the annual consolidated revenues for each of these companies exceeded $100 billion.
28. See “U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2013 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2012 to FY 2013.”
29. Cross II, Justin Smith Morrill: Father of Land-grant Colleges, p. 5.
30. Ibid.
31. Morrill to James Barrett, January 1886, Library of Congress, as cited in Ibid, p. 6.
32. Ibid.
33. Morrill, “Speech of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, on the bill granting lands for agricultural colleges; Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 20, 1858,” p. 7.
34. Ibid, p. 8.
35. Congress, Senate, Senator Harlan of Iowa, 35th Congress, 2nd session, p. 720.
36. Eddy, Colleges for our Land and Time: The Land-Grant Idea in American Education, p. 45, as cited in Cross, p. 88.
37. Eisenhower, “Remarks at Annual Meeting of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, November 16, 1954.”
38. Mettler, Soldiers to Citizens: The GI Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation, p. 42.
39. “Born of Controversy: The GI Bill of Rights.”
40. Mettler, op cit.
41. Truman, “From Harry S. Truman to Bess Wallace, June 27, 1918.”
42. Truman, “Commencement Address at Howard University, June 13, 1952.”
43. Truman, “Letter Appointing Members to the National Commission on Higher Education, July 13, 1946.”
44. The President’s Commission on Higher Education, Higher Education for American Democracy: A Report of the President’s Commission on Higher Education, Vol. I. Establishing the Goals, p. 25.
45. Du Bois, “The Freedom to Learn,” pp. 230-31.
46. Education for American Democracy, p. 29.
47. Truman, “Statement by the President Making Public a Report of the Commission on Higher Education, December 15, 1947.”
48. The President’s Commission on Higher Education, Higher Education for American Democracy: A Report of the President’s Commission on Higher Education, Vol. II. Equalizing and Expanding Individual Opportunity, p. 3.
49. Pay Scale, Inc. “College ROI Report: Best Value Colleges.”
50. See Baum, Ma, and Payea, “Education Pays 2013 The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society.”
51. Ibid.
52. The United States research universities account for 11 of the top 20 global institutions ranked for scientific research by the journal Nature. See “Table 2: Top 200 institutions.”
53. We discuss these topics at greater length in a forthcoming book on the subject.
54. Cahalan and Perna, “Indicators of higher education equity in the United States,” p. 30.
55. In scrutinizing the methodology of the Pell Institute’s study, cited above, Matthew Chingos of the Brookings Institute and Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan estimate that the college graduation rate for the top income quartile is closer to 54 percent while the lowest quintile is closer to 17 percent. See Chingos and Dynarski, “How can we track trends in educational attainment by parental income? Hint: not with the Current Population Survey.” In their 2011 working paper, Bailey and Dynarski demonstrate “that inequality in college persistence explains a substantial share of inequality in college completion. These differences in persistence may be driven by financial, academic, and social factors.” See “Gains and Gaps: Changing Inequality in U.S. College Entry and Completion.”
56. Kirwan, “Keynote Address delivered at University of Kentucky Sesquicentennial, February 23, 2015.”

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Caulk Walks the Walk

This from the Blue Hens (U of Delaware):

Successful or struggling, urban, suburban and rural, University of Delaware alumnus Emmanuel (Manny) Caulk has worked in every type of educational setting.

Since obtaining his elementary teacher education degree and a master’s degree in instruction from UD, Caulk has held a wide range of positions, and set an impressive number of firsts. He has served as:

• The first principal of color at Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, Pennsylvania;
• Newark High School principal, where he initiated the Cambridge program, a rigorous international curriculum for academically advanced students;
• Assistant superintendent in East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana, where he implemented an improvement plan for Istrouma High School that became the only school in the district to be removed from the state’s takeover list; and
• The first African American superintendent in Maine, leading the state’s largest school district.

And as of Aug. 3, Caulk is the first African American superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools in Kentucky.

“Education is my passion. I love going into a school, talking to the teachers, parents, community — finding out where their priorities lie, what their concerns are, where would they like to grow and what are the points of pride — then, by working collaboratively together, setting them on a path for success,” said Caulk.

He takes special delight in helping students who don’t have the tools, the support or the expectation of success that many other children have. There’s a reason for that.

“I grew up in Wilmington public housing. My friends’ and my primary purpose for going to school was to socialize. We carried few school supplies and received very little guidance at home on the importance of education. Then in sixth grade I had Mr. (Robert) Glines as a teacher. For many of the boys in class — raised by single moms — he was our first male role model. He taught us to believe in ourselves. He gave us hope by instilling in us that, through education, we could accomplish our dreams.”

Higher education

In 1993, Caulk came to University of Delaware. “It was a culture shock, but a good one. I actually had a room of my own, and people around with whom I could share ideas and explore options outside of Wilmington city limits.”

Caulk joined ASPIRE, a student group that helps students from underrepresented populations to become teachers and leaders.

This proved to be a pivotal decision — he not only received incredible support from faculty and fellow students, but he met Christol Fitzgerald, a 1996 alumna who also received a master’s degree in 2000. They remained in touch after graduation, and on June 17, 2015, after nearly 20 years of friendship, they were married.

“I had taken positions all around the country, while Christol stayed in Delaware,” said Caulk. “It took awhile for us to reconnect, but once we did, we knew the time was right.“

Fitzgerald worked first as a teacher in the Christina School District, and is now an educational diagnostician with Appoquinmink School District. She expects to finish the school year in Delaware and join Caulk in Kentucky in 2016.

Applying his knowledge

Caulk returned to UD to earn his master’s degree in 2002. “I gained so much knowledge during my time at UD. I really enjoy going in to different schools and applying the skills I learned here,” he said.

Most recently, Caulk served as superintendent for Portland Public Schools, Maine’s largest and most diverse school district. Nearly 55 percent of the students qualify for the reduced/free lunch program. For 25 percent of students, English is a second language — the result of a large influx of immigrants from countries such as Rwanda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

To address the district’s challenges, Caulk built partnerships with families, businesses and a local community college. Among the initiatives he introduced were a Spanish immersion program and world languages such as Mandarin and Arabic, online courses for elective and credit recovery options, and a bridge program to better prepare rising ninth graders for the rigors of high school.

“In partnership with the local community college and the John T. Gorman Foundation, we created a pathway program to help high school seniors approaching proficiency to have a bridge to college and career,” said Caulk. “Graduating seniors can take remedial classes at the community college the summer before they start. This enables them to improve their learning, become familiar with the college campus, develop a support group, and earn college credits.”

Now Caulk’s ready to address new challenges in Fayette County Public Schools. “I hope to create a world-class system of great schools, that delivers on the promise of graduating all students prepared for college, career, and life in a global society.”

Based on Caulk’s past record, students in Fayette County better get ready for success.

Edelen says management of teacher retirement system isn’t the problem

The problem is the politicians in Frankfort haven’t done their job, 

and they haven’t fully funded the system.

This from the Kentucky Standard:

State Auditor Adam Edelen

The problem with Kentucky’s teachers’ retirement system isn’t that it’s mismanaged, it’s that the legislature hasn’t funded it, Auditor Adam Edelen said Thursday, turning the issue back on his Republican opponent, Mark Harmon, who has been in the state House for 12 years.

On the Facebook page, Audit the Auditor, Edelen is criticized for saying the teachers’ retirement program is well-managed, “even though it is essentially broke.” Edelen supported a plan to borrow $3.3 billion to shore up the system that “he failed to completely audit,” it said, referencing Harmon’s website, NoActionAdam.com.

In an interview on PLG TV 13, Edelen said Harmon’s supporters are misrepresenting the facts. Edelen, who is running for his second term, said he and his staff conducted the first audit ever of the teachers’ system by the Office of Auditor, and found that its trustees have made good decisions and that the rate of return on its investments has been among the best in the country.

“This is a top 10-performing system in terms of rate of return over the last 10 years. The problem is the politicians in Frankfort haven’t done their job, and they haven’t fully funded the system. So we need to fix it,” he said.

The pensions of 60,000 teachers are at risk, he added.

“Bonding money to shore up the system isn’t a great idea. But it may be the best of a lot of bad options,” Edelen said, and he challenged Republican lawmakers to come up with a better solution.

The state employees’ retirement system, he said, is also in “real trouble,” and has been underfunded as well, but it’s less clear whether it has made good investment decisions, Edelen said. This year he asked the General Assembly for the resources to examine the system, but it wasn’t a budget year and the request wasn’t approved. But he will ask again in 2016 if he’s re-elected, he said.

Edelen said that, in four years, he has done as many special examinations as his predecessor, Crit Luallen, now lieutenant governor, did in eight, and that he has a “demonstrated record of working in a bipartisan fashion” to improve transparency and hold public officials accountable, whether it’s in the commissioner of agriculture’s office, school districts or special districts, which are a $2.7 billion sector of government in Kentucky that had previously flown under the radar. Now those districts must report who they are, how they’re funded and their finances, including their reserves.

“For the first time, we have a system that separates the wheat from the chaff … so that we’re going to be able to more easily target the lawbreakers and not allow them to hide among the law abiders,” he said.

He said he has also been the primary critic of the way the Medicaid state-managed care system operates, especially the big insurance companies being slow to pay. As a result, Gov. Steve Beshear this summer renegotiated the managed care contracts.

“We’ll monitor it going forward, but I think everybody believes that the new contract in place provides a lot more accountability, a lot more transparency, and candidly, a lot more oversight than what we began with,” he said.

A related concern is the viability of rural community hospitals, and he said he has done a landmark study on that issue.

“That’s awfully important, because if you don’t have access to health care in a rural community, you’ve essentially taken yourself off the grid for economic development,” he said.

Edelen was harshly critical of Harmon’s campaign consultant, Jesse Benton, after Benton was indicted by a federal grand jury for his role in the bribery of a state legislator in Iowa while working for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2012. Benton has since left U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s political action committee, and Harmon, on Thursday, severed his ties with the former aide, who also headed U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s 2014 re-election effort.

Edelen said Harmon hired Benton, knowing that Benton was under investigation. Harmon has said he did so at the time not only to get Edelen out of the auditor’s office, but also to remove Edelen as a possible candidate against Rand Paul for the U.S. Senate in 2016.

“That’s the language of the common street thug, and what we need are people who are committed to working on both sides of the aisle …” to achieve “good government,” he said.

After the interview on PLG, Edelen met with supporters at Café Primo in Bardstown.

“My relationship with Adam goes back to when I was mayor and Adam was chief of staff of Governor Beshear in his first term,” said local supporter Dick Heaton. Edelen was always helpful, he said, in getting an audience with whomever he needed to talk with in state government about local projects and concerns.

“I think his record speaks for itself as state auditor. He’s a watchdog of taxpayers’ money. He’s done a lot of high-profile audits that I think has brought more accountability, whether to school boards or taxing districts or so forth. He’s done a very good job. He’s a very smart young man,” Heaton said.

“I’m sure he has ambitions,” said Mary Jane Greenwell, another Democrat who supports him for re-election and said she would be likely to support him in any future campaign as well.

Leadership Matters

New FCPS Superintendent Manny Caulk began his work in the district this week by filling a number of leadership positions in the districts' schools. Having no time to waste, Caulk turned to a number of FCPS veterans to staff school vacancies on an interim basis. Retired principals Debbie Tronzo, Jane Gettler, Barbara Albaugh, Jock Gum, Larry Donathan, Jane Dreidame, and Vicky Mundy answered the call along with a few promising young'uns, including Carl Hayden.

In addition, Caulk is also missing a number of key staffers (about 8 or 9, as I recall) at the district office. He will be challenged to pull together a solid team in a hurry. Perhaps this helps to explain why the first administrative meeting of the year was called "chaos" by one principal.

FCPS Superintendent Manny Caulk

Typically, a superintendent has a host of support staff around to handle preparations for various aspects of district leadership meetings. Caulk has a skeleton crew, and it apparently showed - at least, I hope that's the explanation. The principal reported that early indications were "more of the same," a reference to the laissez-faire leadership shown by former Superintendent Tom Shelton which led to long-standing administrative problems being unaddressed, important questions from principals being left unanswered, and a toxic work climate. Unfortunately, in his first meeting, Caulk showed elements of being overwhelmed.

Is Manny in over his head? Let's hope not. But time will ultimately tell.

Despite several strong arguments in favor of his selection (which no doubt included the Board's calculation that selecting the districts first permanent African American Superintendent would cause the NAACP to stand down) as much as anything else, Fayette County needs Caulk to be a competent, well-organized, and insightful manager, who focuses on reestablishing FCPS as the well-run district it has traditionally been, and I wish him well in that endeavor. But in the end, and as trite as the statement has become, it is about the kids, not Manny. Poor management has eroded the perception of what was once the state's flagship district. The most important contribution Caulk could make would be to assure that his vision, and that of the Board, is well-communicated, and implemented throughout the district in an efficient and competent fashion.

The district does not need a superman. The district needs a superintendent.

  New interim principal announced for Bryan Station High School; changes in other administrative posts

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/07/3979050/new-interim-principal-announced.html#storylink=cpy

This from the Herald-Leader:

Five days into his tenure as Fayette County Schools superintendent, Manny Caulk is filling open positions and naming new principals as a start to closing the district's achievement gap.

"Leadership matters," Caulk said.

Among the schools that have new leaders is Bryan Station High School, which the state has labeled as persistently low-achieving. Principal Mike Henderson and an associate principal at the school recently retired, leaving open positions.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday has said Fayette County Public Schools must close the achievement gap between minority, disabled and poor students and other students, or face state action.

Specifically, state education officials have said that Fayette County has not given Bryan Station enough support.

But the district has many low-performing schools, and during the recent redistricting process, parents balked at having their children reassigned to struggling schools.

"Having the right leaders in place is just the beginning," Caulk said. "We need a transformation plan, and that starts with great leadership. We have partners from the state Department of Education to help with technical assistance, and our district is committed to providing the resources, systems and structures to meet our moral imperative to prepare every student to excel in college, career and life."

Caulk said the process of filling the open leadership positions has been a learning experience.

"The bottom line is student success," Caulk said. "It's imperative that we accelerate the closing of the achievement gap, and I'm already beginning to see that in urban districts like we have here in Fayette County, superintendents need a different set of tools and strategies in order to take swift and decisive action to support our high-asset schools."

James McMillin, who has been associate principal at Tates Creek Middle School for the past three years, has been appointed interim principal at Bryan Station High School, officials said in a news release Friday night. Carl Hayden, who has been administrative dean at Carter G. Woodson Academy for two years, will be interim associate principal at Bryan Station.

They will join Fred Snodgrass, who became administrative dean at Bryan Station last month, and retired principal Debbie Tronzo, who served as acting principal at Bryan Station over the summer. Tronzo will remain at Bryan Station in a leadership coaching position "to help ensure the new team has every opportunity to succeed," the news release said.

Other changes Caulk announced Friday include selecting Wade Stanfield as interim principal at Eastside Technical Center. Stanfield was principal at Lexington Traditional Magnet School last year. LTMS associate principal Danita Johnson will serve as Tates Creek Middle School interim associate principal, filling the vacancy created by McMillin's departure.

A team of retired principals will lead Lexington Traditional Magnet School. Jane Dreidame (retired Southern Middle principal) and Jock Gum (retired Morton Middle principal) will share responsibilities as interim principal. Retired Edythe J. Hayes Middle School principal Vicki Mundy will step in as interim associate principal.

Other new principals named for the 2015-16 school year include:

■ Cardinal Valley Elementary: Larry Donithan, interim;
■ Garden Springs Elementary: Joey Sheroan;
■ Meadowthorpe Elementary: Barbara Albaugh and Jane Gettler, co-interims;
■ New elementary on Georgetown Road: Shamiah Ford;
■ New elementary in Hamburg: Sarah Woodford;
■ Russell Cave Elementary: Amber Catron;
■ The Learning Center at Linlee: Chris Salyers, interim.

Concerns about PGES results partly behind delay in factoring data into 2015-16 scores

This from Brad Hughes at KSBA:

Kentucky will delay incorporating job performance ratings of teachers and principals into the Unbridled Learning accountability model for at least a year following a decision Thursday by the state board of education.

Specifically, a scheduled inclusion of up to 10 points in school and district scores, based on how principals evaluated teacher growth and superintendents calculated the same for principals, won’t be factored into the annual progress scores for the 2015-16 school year. The 10 points will remain with the existing assessment areas on student academics (achievement, gap, growth, college/career readiness and graduation rate) and the program reviews (covering writing, arts and humanities, practical living, K-3 studies in elementary schools and world languages in high schools for 2016).

In presentations to the KBE, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday and Associate Commissioner for Assessment and Accountability Rhonda Sims said the one-year wait would be the best of several options, and addresses concerns raised about the PGES (Professional Growth and Effectiveness System) ratings for educators.

“Taking the one year will give more time to build capacity,” Holliday told the state board, which voted unanimously for the delay but also indicated it would review the decision next year. 

In an interview with eNews, Sims agreed that in terms of inclusion in the overall ratings for schools and districts, PGES “is not fully ready yet.

“When you put something in accountability, you want it ready for that kind of reporting because it carries consequences,” she said. While there would have been no immediate use of PGES evaluations in personnel decisions in 2015-16, eventually that option is part of the Senate Bill 1 law that required development of the Unbridled Learning system.

According to a Kentucky Department of Education staff report to the KBE (highlights included below), another point of concern dealt with the possibility of PGES ratings being inflated at the local level. At Thursday’s KBE meeting, it was discussed that more than 90 percent of educators who have had their 2014-15 evaluations reported to the state are rated as being “exemplary” or “accomplished,” the two highest possible ratings.

Another unknown that could be resolved before 2016 is the outcome of Congressional negotiations on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (formerly referred to as No Child Left Behind). A key point remaining to be settled between the House and Senate is future federal requirements for use of educator evaluations, either as part of state accountability systems or as data outside the ratings but reported separately to the public.

KDE Staff report for KBE Aug. 6 meeting

Next Generation Professionals Accountability

Senate Bill 1 (2009) required Kentucky to begin a new assessment and accountability system in the 2011-12 school year. The assessment and accountability model is a balanced approach that incorporates all aspects of school and district work and is organized around the Kentucky Board of Education’s four strategic priorities: nextgeneration learners, next-generation professionals, next-generation support systems and next-generation schools/districts. Kentucky's Unbridled Learning Accountability Model is made up of three components.

Next-Generation Learners (70%) was the first component to be enacted in the 2011-12 school year. This component measures performance in the areas of achievement, gap, growth, college/career readiness and graduation rate.

Next-Generation Instructional Programs and Support (20%), the second component, officially began in the 2013-14 school year following a pilot of the program reviews. The program reviews are expanding from the original Arts and Humanities, Practical Living/Career Studies and Writing to include K-3 and World Languages. The K-3 program review was included in the 2013-14 calculation following a pilot process. World Languages will have a similar track and begin as a pilot for high schools in 2014-15 with elementary and middle school levels included at a future date.

Next-Generation Professionals (NGP) (10%) is the final component slated to be added to the model in the 2015-16 school year.

Educator effectiveness has always been a state priority and is reflected in state and national (Race to the Top (RTT) and Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver) expectations. As the discussion began concerning Next Generation Professionals Accountability, the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council (SCAAC) recommended that performance category percentages be used as the measure for the ten points in the accountability model for Next Generation Professionals.

However, concerns have been expressed that Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) ratings may be inflated. Therefore, at the July SCAAC meeting, KDE discussed two options that could be considered for calculating the ten points.

Option 1 is an all or nothing model. In this model, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) would set a delivery target for each school based on reducing novice performance to two percent or less by 2020. If a school meets the target, then the school gets all ten points in the teacher/principal accountability component. If the school does not meet the target, then it gets zero points. If the school eliminates novice and maintains zero percent novice, then it gets the ten points every year.

Option 2 is a 50/50 model. In this model, KDE would use the novice reduction model in option one but assign only five points. The other five points would go toward the percentage of teachers meeting student growth goals. The district accountability model would be the average of the points achieved by the schools.

Groups Consulted and Brief Summary of Responses:

School Curriculum, Assessment, and Accountability Council (SCAAC)

Teacher Effectiveness Steering Committee (TESC)

Kentucky Education Association (KEA)

Feedback from the listed groups did not support either option that was proposed above.
SCAAC did not support Option 1 nor Option 2. The committee shared that educator effectiveness is measured through the student outcomes of students throughout all components of the accountability model. Although the advisory council did not have a quorum to make a formal recommendation, they did discuss it and found consensus on two additional recommendations as follows:

Solution 1: Distribute the educator effectiveness points into the Achievement, Gap, and Growth components. pasting. (At the KBE meeting, this option was corrected to distribute points across the whole accountability model with Next-Generation Learners remaining at 77 percent and Program Reviews at 23 percent.)

Solution 2: If the educator effectiveness component could not be redistributed, they would like to recommend the original recommendation of 70% Overall Teacher Effectiveness and 30% Overall Principal Effectiveness.  

The TESC was polled after the June KBE meeting to receive input on support for the two options presented to the board. Thirteen members responded with the majority suggesting other options including distribution of points across each component, removing the measure, and using the Professional Practice rating.

The KEA expressed concern over the two options proposed to the KBE and suggested the ten points be distributed across Achievement, Gap, and Growth.

Staff Recommendation and Rationale:

Staff recommends that the KBE approve the suggestion of distributing the educator effectiveness points across the entire accountability model. It was most recently suggested by SCAAC but was one of the ideas voiced by the other constituency groups.

The recommendation is reflective of feedback from constituents and aligns with the ESEA waiver requirements.

No Promises

State board will consider making public names of commissioner finalists 

after it completes initial round of interviews next week

At this late date, it is still not clear whether the Kentucky Board of Education will conduct a secret search, or reveal the names of finalists to become Kentucky's next Education Commissioner. Marcum will only commit that the Board "will discuss disclosure of names.”
 
This from KSBA:

Marcum: Confidentiality of semifinalists critical

Don’t look for any names, or even additional insights, in the short term about the candidates still in the running to become Kentucky’s next commissioner of education.

KBE Chairman Roger Marcum

Wednesday afternoon, the Kentucky Board of Education approved an Aug. 15 and 16 schedule to interview an undetermined number of semifinalists for the post. KBE Chairman Roger Marcum said while there are 15 individuals remaining under consideration, how many will actually sit down with he and his fellow state board members remains to be determined.

“The 15 of 44 applicants who have moved forward in the process may or may not be interviewed,” Marcum told eNews in an email interview. “We have requested additional information from the search firm for some of the 15 applicants to help us decide on how many to interview in the first round.”

The Florida-based search firm, Greenwood/Asher & Associates, is surveying the remaining candidates and will report back to Marcum. Then, the two-day interview schedule will be set up for a hotel near the Louisville International Airport.

“After the first round of interviews, we will decide who the search firm should focus on for referencing. The information gathered from referencing will help guide our decision in regard to finalists scheduled for a second interview,” Marcum said.

The state board chairman also addressed the question of when the public might know who is still an active candidate.

“The interviews will not be public. As you know, interviews must occur in closed session to protect confidentiality. For now we will only identify applicants by random number,” Marcum said. “When we identify finalists, the KBE will discuss disclosure of names.”

Holliday is retiring Aug. 31. Also on Wednesday, the state board named Kentucky Department of Education Associate Commissioner and General Counsel Kevin C. Brown to serve as interim commissioner beginning Sept. 1. Marcum has said he hopes that the Brown will have to do both jobs for no more than 30 to 60 days before the new commissioner can be on the job.

The state board is conducting its August meeting today in Frankfort. Public portions of the meeting may be viewed live via the Internet from the KDE website.

Shackling video ignites debate on school discipline

This from Education Week:

The boy sat in a chair, the sound of his whimpering interrupted briefly by the clank of metal handcuffs closing around his arms.

"You don't get to swing at me like that," a deputy says to the 8-year-old child, the interaction caught by a video camera. "You can do what we asked you to, or you can suffer the consequences."

The video — entered as Exhibit A in a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the school, the sheriff and the officer — rocketed across the Internet on Tuesday and was shown again and again on cable news, reigniting a fierce debate over aggressive policing in public schools.

The sheriff defended his deputy while experts insisted that children shouldn't be treated like adult criminals and bemoaned the lack of standardized regulations for restraining children.

"It was hard to breathe," David Shapiro, who leads the National Juvenile Defender Center's campaign against child shackling, said of his reaction when he first saw the video. "As someone who has acted out in class before, I really felt for that child. That's not the way to treat any child, in school, in court, or anywhere."

"Oh my goodness. Oh, no, this is not good," groaned Steven C. Teske, a Georgia juvenile court judge who has led the charge to reduce restraints in schools, as he watched the video for the first time while on the phone with The Associated Press.

The lawsuit filed by two mothers alleges that school resource officer Kevin Sumner, a Kenton County deputy sheriff, handcuffed two children, the 8-year-old boy in the video and another 9-year-old girl in schools the Covington Independent Public Schools district. Both children have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and are identified in court records only by their initials. It's also not clear who took the video, which was filmed in August.

The handcuffs were too big for the children's wrists, so Sumner put the cuffs around their biceps, the lawsuit alleges.

In the video, the boy, who weighed 52 pounds, cried. "Ow, that hurts," he says.

The boy had been removed from class for failing to follow his teacher's instructions, the lawsuit says. He tried to leave the principal's office, so administrators stopped him until Sumner arrived. The officer took him to the bathroom and the boy tried to hit Sumner with his elbow.

Officials with the Covington Independent Public Schools said in a statement that they were cooperating with investigators, but declined to discuss the incident out of privacy concerns.

Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn defended his deputy, who he described as a respected and skilled officer valued by the community.

School administrators' asked for his help after their "efforts to deescalate and defuse a threat to others had proven unsuccessful," Korzenborn said in a statement. "Deputy Sumner responded to the call and did what he is sworn to do and in conformity with all constitutional and law enforcement standards."

Kentucky state regulations ban school officials from restraining students in a public school unless the "students' behavior poses an imminent danger of physical harm to self or others." It also forbids personnel from restraining students that they know have disabilities that could cause trouble.

The lawsuit says officials at both schools were aware of the students' disabilities, which include "impulsivity, and difficulty paying attention, complying with directives, controlling emotions and remaining seated."

"An 8-year-old's job description is to be impulsive," said Julian Ford, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder compounds that problem, he said, struggling to think of a scenario where handcuffing an 8-year-old might be necessary.

"It helps the adults a lot more than it helps the kid," he said.

In the video, the boy kicks his legs in the chair.

Sumner bends down and puts his hand on his shoulder.

"Look at me for a minute, look at me," he says. "If you want the handcuffs off, you've got to stop kicking. Do you want them off or not? It's up to you if you want them off."

"I'm devastated to see a child treated this way," said Lisa H. Thurau, founder Strategies for Youth, an organization meant to improve the relationship between children and police. "But this is not an isolated case. We've heard of these cases before."

Districts across the county began placing officers in school in the early 1990s and the practice exploded in 1999, after two teenagers massacred their fellow students at Columbine High School in Colorado.

In the years since, the line between police officer and school administrator had been muddled, experts say. Schools now commonly call on their in-house officers to implement routine discipline.

At the same time, there has been no uniform method of training officers, no universal oversight or standardized guidelines, Thurau said.

Children with disabilities make up 12 percent of the public school population. But they make up 25 percent of all school arrests.

Thurau hopes that the video might spur the public to demand change.

"The video makes it very clear what's happening out there," she said. "And I think that there's an increasing awareness among folks that this has really, really got to stop."

Full disclosure: Charles "Chuck" Korzenborn is  former student of mine...way back at Hindsdale.

Recently in Lexington

Hat tip to Kryptonite

Kentucky Board of Education looks to its Attorney for Interim Commish

...but not Kevin Noland this time.

This from the Courier-Journal:

State board hires temp education commissioner

With less than four weeks to go before state Education Commissioner Terry Holliday retires, the Kentucky Board of Education has named Kevin Brown to be interim commissioner as the board continues to search for a permanent replacement.

Kevin Brown

Brown, an associate commissioner with the Kentucky Department of Education, will begin Sept. 1 and will run the department until a new commissioner is named. He will earn the equivalent of $150,000 a year, the board decided.

Meanwhile, the board narrowed down a list of 44 applicants for the commissioner job down to 15, saying the board may interview those 15 after getting more information on the candidates from the search firm.

The board met in executive session Wednesday to go through applications, then voted in open session to bring Brown on to lead the state education department on a temporary basis.

The education commissioner job was posted in mid-June, a couple months after Holliday announced he would retire Aug. 31 after nearly six years leading the state’s education initiatives.

Board members had hoped to choose a new commissioner before Holliday retired, but never ruled out the possibility of putting an interim in place.

The board will meet Aug. 14 and 15 in Louisville to conduct the candidate interviews. It is unclear how many will be interviewed in the end.

Whoever is chosen as the next education commissioner will have to learn to work with a new and as-yet unknown state governor, as Gov. Steve Beshear is term-limited and will be replaced in December.

Florida-based search firm Greenwood-Asher and Associates is leading the candidate search effort.

Kentucky auditor recommends budget training for local school board members statewide

This from H-L:

Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen released 75 recommendations Tuesday to help school districts become more efficient in their use of taxpayer dollars.

Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen

Some of the recommendations were developed based on findings during the auditor's office examinations of 21 school districts since 2012.

In Fayette County last September, a special examination by Edelen detailed 10 key findings, including weaknesses in budgeting and financial-management processes, administrative and management salary increases that outpaced those of other district employees, excessive and unnecessary travel, misuse of a trust fund, and conflicts of interest.

Kyna Koch, the district's senior director of administrative services, was hired to resolve problems mentioned in Edelen's report. She has given the school board regular written updates showing when initiatives to fix the problems are completed.

Some recommendations in Tuesday's report match recommendations identified in the Fayette County Public Schools report, Edelen spokeswoman Stephenie Hoelscher said.

"The recommendations in today's report are for all districts and may have been a result of findings in other reports in addition to the one we did on FCPS," she said.

In a news release, Edelen said, "Many of the lessons learned in those exams are contained in this report and should aid school boards, superintendents and district management in providing significant financial oversight and strong internal controls to maximize the fiscal operations of their districts."

The report released Tuesday recommends ways to provide adequate financial oversight, prevent potential conflicts of interest, prevent wasteful spending and improve the protection of confidential student data.

Tuesday's report recommended that board members have training about district budgets. Fayette has done that since Edelen's special examination.

The report also calls for boards to establish processes for district employees to submit concerns to the board about questionable activities.

In Fayette County, options for a hotline have been reviewed.

The report should be found at the link below, but it had been removed early Wednesday morning:
http://apps.auditor.ky.gov/Public/Audit_Reports/Archive/2015SchoolDistrictRecommendations.pdf.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/04/3973932/kentucky-auditor-recommends-budget.html#storylink=cpy

KBE expected to name an interim commissioner today

This from the Herald-Leader:

The Kentucky Board of Education will probably name an interim state education commissioner at a meeting Wednesday, board chairman Roger Marcum said.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday is retiring Aug. 31, and the board is searching for a permanent replacement.

Holliday became Kentucky's fifth education commissioner in July 2009.

Kentucky Department of Education staffers are on the short list of possible candidates for the interim position, Marcum said, but he declined to provide names or the number of candidates.

He said he hoped the interim commissioner, who would begin the job Sept. 1, would not have to serve more than 30 to 60 days.

The interim position is necessary because even if the state board names a permanent commissioner soon after Holliday's retirement, there could be transition time, Marcum said.

Also at Wednesday's meeting in Frankfort, the state board is set to review applications for the permanent position with representatives from a search firm. Marcum said state board members hoped to narrow the list of candidates for the permanent position as they meet with representatives of the search firm Greenwood/Asher and Associates.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/04/3973525/state-school-board-expected-to.html#storylink=cpy

New FCPS chief Emmanuel 'Manny' Caulk begins first day on the job

This from the Herald-Leader:

Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Emmanuel "Manny" Caulk will launch an intensive examination of all aspects of district operations to help him as he begins his new job.

Caulk, who was on the job in Lexington for the first time Monday, takes on the role as the school district is under a state edict to help low-performing schools and close the achievement gap between minority, disabled and poor students and other students.

Caulk, 43, said he had spoken to Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, who has asked Fayette County school officials to improve student achievement.

"I certainly echo and share his concerns," Caulk said at a morning news conference. "Every student should graduate prepared for college, career and life, and to the extent that we are not fulfilling that mission, ... then we need to do some additional work in that area."

Caulk said improvement wouldn't come from a one-size-fits-all solution.

Some schools will need more professional development for the staff. He said he wanted to make sure that all teachers and staff, including the district's several new leaders, had the support they needed.

Some schools will need additional resources to make progress, he said.

On Monday afternoon, Caulk met with middle school principals and officials from the state Department of Education who are working with Fayette County to reduce the number of students scoring at the novice level instead of proficient in the state's accountability system. The state officials also are working to improve student achievement at Bryan Station High School, the district's only school labeled as persistently low achieving.

Later in the week, Caulk is to meet with other principals to share the novice-reduction plan.

Students who are proficient will need to get to higher levels more quickly, and students who are at the novice level will need to become proficient more quickly, he said.

As part of Caulk's contract, he asked that experts be allowed to come into the district and help him with an entry plan. The contract says the cost of consultants would be kept in check. The consultants would help work on organizational structure, culture, policies, academics, operations, communication, finances, special education and other areas, Caulk said.

"A world-class system of great schools is our goal," he said. "Our mission here in Fayette County is to create a collaborative community that ensures that all students achieve at high levels and graduate prepared to excel in a global society."

Caulk began his first day at a meeting for classified employees, including custodians and bus drivers, at Bryan Station High School.

"Every person is critical to student success," Caulk said. His first summer job between high school and college was as a high school custodian.

Caulk also spoke to new teachers at orientation at Bryan Station.

Later he went to the district's Central Office, where he met with school board chairman John Price, vice chairwoman Melissa Bacon, and Marlene Helm, who had been interim superintendent since Tom Shelton resigned in December.

Caulk, who previously was superintendent of the Portland, Maine, school district, met several Central Office employees before answering questions at a news conference.

Caulk told reporters he was preparing for the first day of school on Aug. 12.

Price, the board chairman, said at the news conference: "Our role is to build a team."

He said he and Bacon let Caulk know how much "we support the work we are about to do together as a team."

Price said he was not just talking about the team at Central Office.

"It's the team of our staff and the team of our community," he said.

District officials also have spent the past several months trying to address problems in financial and budget systems that were pointed out in a 2014 state audit.

Caulk said he was reviewing the audit from state Auditor Adam Edelen and the district's correction plan to ensure that the problem "doesn't occur again."

"We are confident we will not experience again those sorts of findings," he said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/03/3972177_new-fayette-county-schools-superintendent.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Recently in Portland

I stumbled across these pretty scenes from Portland, Maine today. 'Bout a month old now: FCPS Superintendent Manny Caulk enjoyed some transition time

This from Caulk's blog:

Happy 4th of July

Posted By: caulke July 5, 2015

There’s only one place to celebrate the 4th of July in Portland and that is the Eastern Promenade – Stars and Stripes Spectacular!

I enjoyed this annual 4th of July event with my wife, friends, and parents.  We sat on the lawn and looked out at the sailboats, islands, and the vastness of the ocean, as we listened to classical music performed by the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  The evening ended with an awesome display of fireworks!

Please find pictures from the event below and I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend as well.

Teaching Center

ICYMI - This from Key & Peele: