Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A tale of two tellers

Kentucky's two big newspapers sat out another key education meeting again yesterday. If they are even going to pretend to cover public policy, the Courier Journal and Herald Leader should at least cover the single largest item in the state budget.

When Education Commissioner Jon Draud's Assessment and Accountability Task Force met yesterday, two people were there to cover it. What's amazing is how different their reports were. First there is EKU professor Richard Day:
"If a vote had been taken today it is unclear whether Commissioner Draud's Assessment and Accountability panel would keep writing portfolios in the CATS assessment."

Then consider the report from Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes:
"Until yesterday, the information provided to the public consistently indicated that findings from this task force would be collected in a report to be provided to the legislature. Well, forget that."

"Now – as announced yesterday at meeting five of the task force – the committee’s findings are going to have to be approved by the State Board of Education. Furthermore, instead of an independent and uncensored report, the task force’s findings will simply be buried in the Kentucky Board of Education’s 2009 legislative request."
While it is no surprise that this task force was set up to provide cover for doing nothing to improve education in Kentucky and provide back-up for the traditional screaming for more money, it is a bit of a shock to see the cover-up performed so publicly. Good thing Dick Innes was there to witness and report on it.