Kentucky Doesn't Need Charter Schools

Even if they did anything but enrich their corporate owners and moronify the population, Kentucky is doing better than fine with plain old public education, thank you very much.

Beth Musgrave and Jim Warren at the Herald:

Kentucky climbed to 10th place nationally in the 2013 Quality Counts survey of the states' education performance, released Thursday by Education Week magazine.

It's an impressive performance for Kentucky, which over the years has often lagged well down the listings in many national educational reports. In fact, Kentucky has jumped 24 places in the Quality Counts annual report over the past two years. The state ranked 34th in 2010 and climbed to 14th last year.

Gov. Steve Beshear said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that Education Week's 2013 ranking shows that Kentucky's public school system is a leader in reform. He said the state continues to climb in all national education rankings.

"We're improving faster than most other states," Beshear said.

State Education Commissioner Terry Holliday attributed Kentucky's rise in Thursday's report to better tests scores and the state's high marks in aligning early childhood, K-12 and high education programs.

Kentucky schools are a long way from great, and in pockets of poverty they are a long way from acceptable. But charter schools, by taking taxpayers' money away from public schools, would make education in the Commonwealth worse, not better.

Which is why you need to call your legislator and tell her to vote against this stupidity:

Mike Wynn at the Courier:

A scaled-down version of a controversial bill to allow charter schools in Kentucky is returning to the General Assembly this year, but supporters and opponents say it has little chance of winning approval in the House.

House Bill 76 would authorize a five-year pilot program for up to 75 of the schools that would receive public funding based on student enrollment, but wouldn’t have to adhere to many of the regulations governing traditional public schools.


Rep. Brad Montell, a Shelbyville Republican who has sponsored similar bills the past four years, said he is softening last year’s measure, which did not establish a cap on the number of authorized charters and died in the House Education Committee. Still, Montell said he is not optimistic that the bill will pass.


“I don’t see that a lot has changed in the mood of the House when it comes to charter schools,” he said. “What we want to do is just continue to keep this issue out there.”


Kentucky is among about eight states that do not allow charter schools.

Hmm. Maybe that has something to do with our leap into the top 10 states?

Charter schools are a way to funnel taxpayer dollars away from public schools and to political cronies, sleazy corporations, con artists, freakazoids and other con artists. Period.