No charter schools stymies Kentucky’s bid for stimulus funds
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – If Kentucky wants to successfully compete for the second round of Race to the Top stimulus funding, education experts say it should pass a charter school law.
“Stimulus or not, Kentucky should be adopting charter schools because it’s the right thing to do,” said Richard G. Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank.
The institute has led the effort to bring charter schools to Kentucky, which is one of only a few states without a charter law.
On Jan. 13, the state Senate Education Committee failed to approve an amendment to House Bill 176 that would have added charters to the state’s Race to the Top application.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it was awarding stimulus funding to only two states – Delaware ($100 million) and Tennessee ($500 million). Unlike Kentucky, both of those states have charter schools and aggressive plans to use student data and test scores to improve the effectiveness of teachers and principals.
Second-round applications for the remaining $3 billion in available Race to the Top funds are due June 1 with winners being announced in September. Kentucky is eligible for $175 million in funding.
“With the extra 30 to 40 points that charters would have given us in the RTTT competition, we would have exceeded the scores of at least one of the two winning states,” Innes said. “Instead, we now face an uncertain future in Phase Two of the Race to the Top competition as our education commissioner scrambles to get emergency legislation for charter schools in place.”
Reps. Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville, and Stan Lee, R-Lexington, have filed charter school bills that are ready for debate and consideration by lawmakers.
“The Bluegrass Institute warned legislators that by pacifying the state’s teachers union rather than implementing policy that would help thousands of students trapped in low-performing schools, Kentucky would lose out in the Race to the Top funding,” said Jim Waters, the institute’s director of policy and communications. “It’s time for lawmakers to place the needs of children ahead of the campaign contributions they receive from the KEA and immediately pass a charter school law.”
Labor bosses oppose charter schools – publicly funded schools that operate independent of many of the regulations that hinder traditional public schools – because teachers unions cannot control staffing, curriculum or policy decisions.
More than 1.5 million children – an overwhelming majority of whom are from minority and low-income homes – are enrolled in the more than 5,000 charter schools nationwide.
“If it works in Boston and New York for their poor kids, why do we continue to deny the poor kids of Kentucky the same opportunity?” Innes asked.
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For interview information, please contact the Bluegrass Institute at 270-782-2140 or jwaters@freedomkentucky.com.
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