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The Wisdom of Choice
By:
Mr. Jim Waters
In the story that made King Solomon famous for his wisdom across all faiths, two
mothers came to him with a dispute concerning a child. One of the women had lost
her child and now was claiming that the other woman’s son was hers.
To find out who was truthful, Solomon announced he would cut the baby in half.
The honest mother relented and offered to give the baby to the other woman
rather than allowing the child to be killed. In the end, the woman who had been
honest got her baby back because she was willing to give him up rather than
cling to her claims.
A modern version of this story is being acted out in Kentucky. Our education
leadership claims that children are its top priority, yet a new policy proposal
suggests otherwise.
The Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) is presently calling for legislators to
substantially revise a provision of Kentucky law. When considering appeals by
parents whose request to transfer their children to another school district is
denied at the local level, KRS 157.350 requires the KBE to “give preference to
the best interest of the individual child.”
This proposal emerges after a contentious KBE vote. The decision sustained
Education Commissioner Gene Wilhoit’s opposition to the wishes of parents who
live in the Breathitt County School District but want to transfer their children
to the adjacent Jackson Independent School District. Wilhoit’s denial prohibits
state funding to follow those students to Jackson Independent.
The commissioner got involved after Breathitt officials refused to re-sign a
longstanding student transfer agreement with the Jackson district. However, like
the woman in Solomon’s story who was willing to give up her son so he could
live, the Jackson district agreed to educate 78 children even though it will not
receive $380,000 in state funding that would have followed had Breathitt
re-signed the transfer agreement.
In addition to denying Jackson’s appeal, the board now is considering changing
the standard by which future appeals are decided. For the sake of Kentucky’s
parents and students, the KBE should drop its support for altering a law that
explicitly reinforces the right of parents to appeal local denials of legitimate
transfer requests.
In 1992, the General Assembly approved KRS 157.350 requiring the commissioner or
KBE board to “give preference to the best interest of the individual child” when
deciding appeals by parents caught in transfer controversies.
Some education officials say the law is not clear. “Whose best interest are we
talking about here?” asked KBE board member Helen Mountjoy in an article
published by the Kentucky School Boards Association.
But former Rep. Roger Noe, a Harlan Democrat who chaired the House Education
Committee from 1985 to 1992, said legislators clearly intended for the law to
apply to the child who is directly involved in an appeal.
“If a district – whether county or independent – is not performing to parents’
expectations, the parents should be allowed to transfer their children to a
better district,” said Noe, who wrote the original legislation.
That policymakers felt compelled to include the language – “the best interest of
the individual child” – reveals their original intent. When a school fails to
educate a child, the needs of other children, teachers and administrators should
be secondary.
Nevertheless, some education officials claim that such policy harms children
whose parents don’t request a transfer. This doesn’t make sense.
If a sick patient leaves one hospital for another, this action signals something
is wrong. Only to the extent the problem that caused the transfer is not
resolved does a departure harm remaining patients. For a hospital to deny such a
transfer masks the problem and endangers the remaining patients. Why should a
school transfer be any different?
Noe said that when parents can choose to transfer their children to a
better-performing district, it’s an effective policy for both students who
transfer and those who don’t.
“Giving parents that option applies a certain amount of appropriate pressure to
schools to either improve or risk losing even more students,” he said.
That’s the kind of wisdom needed to reach the next level of effective education
reform in Kentucky.
Of course, those entrenched in protecting the status quo don’t see it that way.
Mountjoy suggests that parents are not capable of exercising sound judgment when
requesting to transfer their children to better schools.
“Is it enough for parents to come in and swear up and down that this is the best
placement for their kids?” Mountjoy asked. “Certainly” should be the answer of
every education leader and parent who cares about our children’s future.
That Mountjoy would even raise this question offers more evidence that it’s
parents – not education do-gooders – who should decide the future of Kentucky’s
children.
Jim Waters is Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass
Institute (www.bipps.org),
Kentucky’s only free-market think tank.
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