Students arrive at Carter Traditional Elementary School in Louisville in January 2022. (Getty Images)
As usual, political shenanigans around education are a bipartisan game, fun for everyone except those most affected, our kids, be they little tykes or college students. The past couple of weeks in Kentucky are nothing new. Consider the following:
-Auditor Allison Ball announced her completed audit of the Jefferson County Public Schools, and I could think of nothing but that Peggy Lee classic “Is That All There Is?” sung in Lee’s throaty, world-weary voice.
The problems afflicting JCPS are not the wild politics, apparently, but “poor communication,” a lack of planning, and of course, everyone’s favorite bugbear, DEI. Amazing though it may seem, a school district of more than 94,000 students – bigger than most Kentucky cities – might indeed have communication problems. And with 65 percent students of color, one might imagine that diversity issues could come to the forefront.
Ball also noted that expenses exceeded revenues, which is not too surprising, when the state’s funding formula has been flat or declining for years. I guess the expenses were not full of waste, fraud and abuse or she would have pointed that out.
Let’s hope she can do a better job with the long-awaited examination of Fayette County, which does seem to have real financial problems to worry about.
-Speaking of Fayette, I cannot pretend to understand what is now happening in that benighted district, but it seems fairly clear that Demetrus Liggins is not leaving without a fight. Or a big payout, which the district can surely not afford. The blame goes far, wide and back in time, and all I can do is re-up an idea I had about a year ago, which is that everyone in the top layer needs to go, so the district can start fresh. Our students deserve better than this comic-drama soap opera.
-Now over to higher education, where the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees decided they had been just a wee bit hasty in voting to give away their power, along with that of the faculty and staff. They voted to bring back their ability to approve dean appointments after Gov. Andy Beshear voiced his displeasure with the recent hiring of Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, a Republican who apparently hangs out with GOP megadonor Joe Craft, as dean of the UK Rosenberg College of Law. Nice of the trustees, of course, to change course like that, but it would be nicer if the board would also revisit their vote to blow up shared governance at the university. Something they voted on with little discussion and what looked like great enthusiasm.
Incidentally, the UK law school was in the news last week, when Lantern reporter McKenna Horsley noted that a big Senate bill to remake the JCPS school board contained the last-minute addition of a Center of American Civics to be placed at the law school. No one took credit for this mysterious entry, even though it has been a favorite ALEC bill of Republican legislatures for a few years.
I have a prediction based on years of intertwined observation and cynicism: the new center gets funded by a random GOP megadonor, and Tatenhove gets all the credit so his backers can point out what a great fundraiser he is. It could even be named for Mitch McConnell in his last year in office. But then again, this dream scenario probably depends on how much big donors are getting squeezed to pay the going rate for basketball players. Priorities, priorities.
