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Kentucky’s education bureaucracy again wants to deny parents and students education choices.

The Kentucky Department of Education wants to release No Child Left Behind (NCLB) scores late this year. Federal officials, who must approve such requests, should just say “no.”

It’s no secret that many Kentucky education bureaucrats disdain NCLB. Honestly, we’re not crazy about federal intervention in state and local matters, including education.

However, federal-government intervention into state education isn’t what bothers Kentucky education officials about NCLB. They don’t like the law’s efforts to hold public schools accountable for performance in educating students ignored in the past, particularly minority and special-needs students. These accountability measures include allowing students attending failing schools to transfer to a better school.

But for parents to take advantage of this option, they must know about the better schools. So they need timely access to accurate information about school performance.

Chronic patterns of delay exhibited by the KDE and its testing system deny that.

Even if Kentucky releases NCLB scores on time at the beginning of August, that only leaves parents a couple of weeks to find better schools and enroll their children. Delaying the release of NCLB scores until after school starts ensures that most parents – especially those seeking a better school – will not take advantage of the NCLB’s options.

KDE spokesperson Lisa Gross offers the same worn-out response she always gives on this issue. “Only a small number of parents choose the transfer options,” she said.

Of course, most parents won’t take advantage of school-choice options if it means yanking students out of school — even a failing one — in the middle of the term. This certainly can’t be offered as evidence that Kentucky parents don’t want choices or that they would not take advantage of transfer options given more accurate and timely information.

But the delay provides more evidence that educators remain content to repeatedly derail the positive provisions in NCLB – even if the rights of students and parents get trampled in the process.

Contact the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky's free-market think tank, at (270) 782-2140. Read past Shine the Light articles at www.bipps.org.

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