Report builds on earlier data dives into Kentucky’s K-12 facts, trends For Immediate Release: Monday, April 1, 2024 Contact: Jim Waters @ (270) 320-4376 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Funding and performance trends at the local level mirror even more starkly what’s happening statewide, according to a new Bluegrass Institute policy point. According to “Less local bang for more bucks: A Review of Facts and Trends in Jefferson County Public Schools,” per-pupil funding in Kentucky’s largest school district was not only a whopping $23,561 but it had significantly increased over the previous year’s $19,280. De ..read more

As I wrote yesterday, the fight over allowing Kentucky’s students to have choices over where they attend school has been loud and aggressive. Opponents of choice have been pulling out all the stops to prevent Bluegrass State students from enjoying the same sorts of school choice options that students across the rest of the nation already enjoy. Fortunately, others are wiser. With the passage of House Bill 2 last week, the state’s residents now get a chance to decide if the Kentucky Legislature will be allowed to provide the same sorts of education choices that students in the vast majority of ..read more

The fight over allowing Kentucky’s students to have choices over where they attend school has been loud and aggressive. Opponents of choice, including the governor and his supporters in the education bureaucracy and the teachers’ unions, have been pulling out all the stops to prevent Bluegrass State students from enjoying the same sorts of school choice options that students across the rest of the nation already enjoy. Fortunately, others are wiser. With the passage of House Bill 2 last week, the Kentucky legislature now will allow the state’s residents to decide if it will be possible going f ..read more

The Bluegrass Institute often receives queries about how students attending schools outside the public school system perform academically. It generally has been a challenge to answer those requests because non-public school data isn’t often reported to the public. For one example, absence of specific nonpublic school data has been standard with reports for the ACT college entrance test results. Only overall averages for the total student population, public, private and homeschool combined, have been released by ACT, Inc. However, we recently learned (Hat Tip to @dmwoof on Twitter/X) about a sh ..read more

Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after appearing in publications statewide. Alarmists incessantly accuse education-choice supporters of “cherry picking” the data, and schools of choice of doing the same with their student bodies. Actually, it’s those doomsdayers who lead the way when it comes to “selective analysis” regarding the impact of school choice programs in other states. A recent op-ed by Bluegrass Institute scholars Gary Houchens and John Garen looked at how retired Frankfort bureaucrat and lawyer ..read more

Following Tuesday’s floor session of the state Senate, that body’s judiciary committee met in a special-called meeting to hear discussion on House Bill 5, a large crime bill called the “Safer Kentucky Act.” (Watch the entire hearing here.) No vote was taken (that’s scheduled for Thursday), but there were a chorus of concerns raised about cost and consequences. The more this bill gets examined and debated, the more the following becomes apparent: · Parts of this bill are well-founded, including movement toward Truth in Sentencing, punishing violent offenders and those with violent intentions ..read more

Provided by Kentucky’s Voice The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet today in a special called meeting to consider House Bill 5, the “Safer Kentucky Act,” a very large omnibus crime bill estimated to cost Kentucky taxpayers as much as a $1 billion over the next decade. Joey Comley, Kentucky Right on Crime’s new director, joined me recently on The Station, the anchor show for Kentucky’s Voice, a new conservative media outlet. Joey talked about his organization, which offers conservative criminal justice reform policies that balance reducing crime and restoring victims with reforming offenders ..read more

With the Kentucky General Assembly expected to approve a constitutional amendment removing legal barriers to Kentucky families having the same kind of educational opportunities available in a majority of other states, prepare for a campaign of misinformation and fearmongering, the likes of which has rarely been seen in the commonwealth. On his monthly segment on the Box 2 Radio Show’s morning show earlier today, Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters talked about what will NOT happen with passage of a school choice amendment, which may be as important to myth-busting efforts as demonstratin ..read more

Gary W. Houchens, Ph.D. By Gary W. Houchens & John Garen Cherry picking research studies to defend a particular point of view is a disreputable approach. However, it appears that a defender of the education establishment has done so, apparently to discredit the idea that every family might get to choose how their own children are educated. . John Garen, Ph.D. In a recent commentary, John Schaaf argues that research on voucher programs from Indiana and Ohio proves that school choice is bad for kids. Presumably, Schaaf wants to convince lawmakers to oppose a proposed state constitutional a ..read more

New policy brief points to lack of bang for billions of education bucks Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters recently participated in a debate on KET’s ‘Kentucky Tonight’ about education spending, transparency, performance and choice. Waters was joined by Heather LeMire, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Kentucky, in making the case for education freedom in the commonwealth. Opponents of education choice and freedom on the program are: Brigitte Blom, president and CEO of The Prichard Committee, and Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association (a teachers union ..read more