The latest media attack on Governor Fletcher (and Republicans in general) has been easy to debunk. This attack attempts to cast Fletcher as uncaring about education.
On Monday, AP reporter Joe Biesk's article in the Lexington Herald Leader reported that Kentucky was found to be last in the nation in per capita spending on education. He reports that Governing magazine's 2005 State and Local Source Book is his source for the figures he quotes, but neglects to point out that the numbers are based on 2002 Census Bureau statistics. The timeliness of the story is appropriate in that Governing magazine just released the report this month, but has nothing to do with the current resident of the Governor's Mansion.
This fact has not stopped liberal pundits from going rabid, and barking that Republicans just don't care about kids.
The hard, cold fact is that a two minute phone call to the Kentucky Department of Education revealed that Kentucky's spending on K-12 education in FY 2006 is 44.1% of General Fund expenditures and that is UP from FY 2002's 41.2%.
We won't lose sleep waiting for David Hawpe, Mark Nickolas, et al to apologize for nipping at Governor Fletcher's heels when they should have in fact been chewing on Paul Patton, but spreading the word on this attempt at spin from the left should provide some perspective on other charges leveled by them.
