Just finished reading another petulant appeal for throwing more piles of money at the Kentucky education establishment. The author, unsurprisingly, is a former Speaker Jody Richards (D-Bowling Green) staffer.
As I was reading, it occured to me that there is bi-partisan agreement on the existence of a problem in education, but conservatives and liberals have almost no point of agreement on the path to improvement.
Republicans have historically done a poor job of taking advantage of Democrats single-minded clamoring for more money.
It is too easy. Asked what they would do with more money, Democrats insist that higher teacher pay is the answer. But we now know that Kentucky's teachers are the fifth best compensated in the United States.
More money isn't the answer. A different philosophy is.
Conservatives insist on higher standards, tough discipline, and accountability. Liberals champion permissiveness in the classroom. And when it come to holding the schools accountable, they permit outright fraud in the CATS program.
It has been two weeks since the Bluegrass Institute exposed very serious problems with the testing system that we use in Kentucky to evaluate our schools. The GOP is missing a fantastic opportunity to make real improvements to the schools that Democrats have papered over for decades.
