Louisville School BEAT

My Letter to the Kentucky Board of Education

8/17/2018

The following was emailed earlier this week to all members of the Kentucky Board of Education. As of 8/17/18, I’ve received no response.

To the members of the Kentucky Board of Education,

I am writing to register my opposition to state takeover of JCPS. Given the political nature of your appointments, the ties that many of you have to education privatization, and the stated positions of many of you regarding Jefferson County Public Schools and education, I have little hope that my plea will get a real hearing, but I would hope that you would at least read these points and give rejecting state takeover some consideration.

1) Jefferson County Public Schools have much that is good about them.

Many of the critics of JCPS have talked about the need for choice. The truth is that JCPS offers many choices to parents, and we as parents have taken advantage of them to help my daughter. We chose her elementary school, her magnet middle school program, and her magnet high school because they were the ones best suited to address my daughter's artistic abilities and the fact that she was gifted and talented. There are many students doing well in JCPS and many satisfied customers of JCPS. If you are truly advocates of choice, then you must realize that JCPS does have choice, and that our student assignment program provides them. If anything, the state should be supplying more resources to JCPS to encourage and grow our choices.

While there certainly many areas where JCPS has failed under its prior leadership, there are many wonderful schools, programs, teachers, and staff doing great things daily. This board and commissioner should be vocal in supporting those.

2) The climate of JCPS prior to Dr. Hargens resignation was terrible. So much so that it felt like it was by design.

I attended almost every JCPS Board of Education Meeting from the beginning of 2015 to the end of Dr. Hargens' reign. From her contract renewal forward, the wheels seemed to fall off the system. Morale plummeted. Teachers, parents, and students complained about discipline and academic issues that went unaddressed. Many talked about receiving no backup from the administration. Several key administrators left. Important work was outsourced. We saw a Chief Business Officer brought in who helped destroy morale with a salary study that contained key errors that made it meaningless.

If you watched or attended those board meetings, you would have seen numerous meetings with parents, teachers, and students who were upset about what was going on in the system, and a Superintendent who seemed to turn a deaf ear to them. Additionally, we saw a Louisville business community that seemed to be happy about the turmoil she created, with several prominent local business people and even our Chamber of Commerce praising her after she resigned. It's not hard to wonder if these people were happy because she helped place the state in a position where state takeover could be possible.

It’s also worth noting that internally our board had a lot of division between those who supported Hargens and tried to limit discussion about her actions, and members who were tired of being left in the dark or having to deal with the consequences of those actions. Those members are the ones who were re-elected and helped bring forth her resignation.

3) Kentucky's School Boards are limited by law in their power and are given training that advises them to work for compromise and agreement to support the Superintendent.

JCPS critics love to bash our school boards for not fixing every single problem with the district. By law they are limited in the scope of their powers. They are not supposed to be involved in day to day operations and cannot hire or fire anyone but a few select people that report directly to the board. Additionally, their training emphasizes that they should work together to reach agreement and compromise, as well as support the superintendent. There are several instances when our last superintendent seemed to purposely keep most of our school board in the dark, and others where our school board was unaware of steps being taken by the previous superintendent and her administration. This is not the fault of the board, but a superintendent who seemed to work hard to hide information from the rest of the board. The men and women of the board also are limited in the times they can meet and discuss these issues to meetings held in accordance to open meetings law, which helps ensure transparency, but can make addressing these issues more difficult.

4) The performance gap issues of JCPS are not unique to JCPS, they're just easier to bury in other districts.

Critics of JCPS like to talk about achievement gaps in our schools. Certainly these are gaps we need to address. But these same critics place the blame solely on teachers and schools without looking at the bigger picture. Gaps are not uncommon at all throughout Kentucky, from the best scoring districts to the worst. Even in places like Oldham County you'll find that minority students and poorer students do worse than white students and wealthier students. Of course, since the percentages of poor and minority students are much smaller, these districts look much better on paper than JCPS. What is seldom discussed is WHY these students might have greater issues achieving at a level of their more privileged peers. Which leads me to....

5) We cannot fix educational outcomes and achievement gaps without addressing societal inequities.

We blame teachers and schools, but we seldom talk about how income and opportunity impact education. We don't discuss economic opportunity, hunger, homelessness, transportation, disproportionate incarceration, violence, or other issues that impact educational outcomes for students among various groups. Nor do we discuss how Kentucky and Louisville can address these issues that feed educational outcomes. Certainly we should work to improve our teachers’ abilities to handle students from all backgrounds, but we should also recognize that the circumstances these kids grow up in feeds their learning. Any discussion of Louisville's schools that does NOT address how we can make life better for its children and their families is foolish. But that's a discussion that Mr. Heiner, Commissioner Lewis, and at least some of this board don't seem to want to have.

6) This board does NOT reflect the 100,000 families of JCPS.

There can be no denying that this board does NOT represent a diverse set of views or circumstances, nor does it reflect the 100,000 public school families of JCPS. Each of you has been appointed by a governor with a dim view of public education. Several of you have joined with each other in the creation of non-profits to further the cause of charter schools and school privatization. I don’t believe any of the Louisville board members have had any kids in JCPS.

Over 35% JCPS students are African American, but we have a Kentucky Board of Education member who has openly attacked diversity initiatives and the Civil Rights Act, another who has questioned if parents in our predominantly black neighborhoods care about kids, and you all serve under a governor who has made racially insensitive comments and has attacked the faith of ministers who called him out for his tone deaf approach to violence in the west end.

Louisville ranks 11th in percentage of gay residents, but our Kentucky board chairman voted against the local Fairness Ordinance, and has aligned himself (along with Dr. Lewis and Milton Seymore) with JCPS critic, "Pastor" Jerry Stephenson, who has issued some of the most vile attacks against our LGBT community.

In short, I don't believe most of you truly represent the 100,000 students of JCPS, the community at large, or the parents who choose to send their kids to public schools. While some of you DO send your kids to public schools, I doubt that you fully understand JCPS or the issues the Louisville faces daily. Certainly I've not seen any of the local members of our Kentucky School Board putting much effort into being a part of JCPS and helping to make it better beyond throwing criticisms at the district. It is frustrating to read that several members of this board have complained about being contacted directly about state takeover. You are serving in a representative capacity. If you do not wish to do so, you can always resign.

7) There is ZERO evidence that Dr. Lewis or the state board is better able to initiate positive change to JCPS, or that they are qualified for the task.

Dr Lewis has limited K-12 experience that occurred over a decade ago, and apparently none at the administrative level. He has refused to talk about any plan or work he would do if he takes over the district to improve things, citing a law that doesn’t say anything about his ability to weigh in. The state has only taken over tiny districts in the past with mixed results. It’s unclear how Lewis or any member of the KDE expects to affect change in a district many times the size of other districts that they have taken over.

8) The road to state takeover has been a politically motivated sham.

There is plenty of reason to feel that this is all politically and ideologically motivated.

Your new board chair, Hal Heiner, has spent close to a decade working with several of you to push for charter schools and other privatization efforts. Chair Heiner, Vice-chair Seymore, and board member Houchens all served together on a local non-profit, the Kentucky Charter School Association, devoted to attacking JCPS and bringing charters to the state. Commissioner Lewis was also a part of this same board. Additionally, as stated above, Lewis, Seymore, and Mr. Heiner have all worked together with Indiana Pastor and JCPS critic Jerry Stephenson, in the BAEO, Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition, and the Kentucky Education Restoration Alliance.

Prior to the latest round of Bevin appointments to the board, it was believed by several people I spoke to that Stephen Pruitt was leaning toward state assistance. Indeed, some documents released after the fact reflect this. But for reasons I don’t think have ever fully been explained, Pruitt’s final recommendation was tied up until the point where Governor Bevin could appoint new members to the board. This new board of Bevin appointees gathered in a hastily called meeting to oust Pruitt, despite his glowing performance reviews. At that meeting you violated several of your own board policies when you elected a new chairman (and neglected to elect a vice chair). You then entered an illegal closed session where suddenly Pruitt was out and Lewis was in. With Lewis in place, it was clear we were headed for state takeover, and that is indeed what Lewis recommended.

Commissioner Lewis’ settlement offer makes it clear that what is really desired is the ability to control certain aspects of JCPS. Most notable among these is student assignment. Changes to our student assignment plan could adversely impact thousands of our children by dismantling magnet programs and taking away our ability to choose the schools our children go to. The Kentucky General Assembly tried to dismantle our magnet programs with the Neighborhood Schools Bill and failed. Now our Governor is trying to do it with a non-elected board of individuals who have a vested interest in dismantling our school choices. Pushing JCPS to neighborhood schools would make charter schools more appealing once they become the sole choice. This would also serve to re-segregate our schools, which is certainly appealing to some in our community, including real estate developers who like to make sure their houses are near “good” schools and wouldn’t have to worry about kids from poorer areas coming to those schools.

These moves are not about improving our schools. If it was, Wayne Lewis would be looking to work with our board, superintendent, and teachers collaboratively; not continuously lobbing grenades at us from Lexington and Frankfort. He’d be talking about our schools and our city holistically, and working to find ways to improve life and education for all 100,000 students in JCPS; and not simply hurling barbs at our teachers and board of education.

In conclusion, I realize this email will anger some of you. That’s fine. But realize that just as you made choices for your children’s education, I made choices for mine. And I will fight any attempt to undermine or hurt my daughter’s education, the education of others, JCPS, and public education in general. If you want to affect change, work with us and not against us. If called upon, please vote against state takeover of all or any part of JCPS.

Feel free to contact me. I'd love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Rob Mattheu

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My Speech to the JCPS Board of Education: Reject Any Settlement Offer With Wayne Lewis

8/8/2018

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Dr. Pollio, Chair Porter, and Members of the Board,

I ask that you reject ANY settlement with the Kentucky Board of Education that involves takeover of a part or all of our district or removes our right to legally challenge future actions taken.
It is clear that Wayne Lewis’ attempt to “settle” and the terms by which he wishes to settle are yet another salvo in Governor Bevin’s war on public education. Lewis is part of a group of education privatizers who grandstand like they’re helping the least fortunate children of Louisville, but instead use any means necessary to undermine public education, diversity, and democratic institutions of this city. The members of the Kentucky board do not care about children. Instead they are using these children as political cover for their actions.

Yes, Lewis and the state board will tell you this is not political. But what else can you call a board of people tied together by an anti-public education ideology and close relationships in numerous educational non-profits devoted to the same?

Starting almost a decade ago, Hal Heiner began creating groups and social media presences devoted to educational privatization. One group, Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education, included KDE Board Vice-Chair, Milton Seymore, and Commissioner Lewis, and eventually board member Gary Houchens among its directors.

In the same month, Heiner also formed the Kentucky Coalition for Education Reform with Jerry Stephenson, the homophobic Indiana pastor who has attacked JCPS for years, most recently as a part of Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition in which he worked side by side with Vice-Chair Milton Seymore. Stephenson was a member of the Walton funded BAEO that pushed for private school vouchers.

These same men have connection with the Bluegrass Institute, a think tank whose policy papers continually attack JCPS. Other board members have deep ties to private schools and out of state charters.

In short, what we have is a singular minded KY board of education not looking out to improve our public schools, but rather a board working to undermine and dismantle them in the name of charters and vouchers.

This is borne out by Wayne Lewis’ settlement offer, where we find that one of their key objectives is controlling student assignment. These so called advocates of choice want to dismantle the magnet school programs and transportation plan that give the 100,000 students of JCPS their choices. They couldn’t dismantle our magnet schools and student assignment plan with their terrible Neighborhood Schools bill, so now they’re going to do an end run with an unqualified commissioner and unelected board of education.

I know the 7 board members here. You are present in our communities and our schools daily and understand the problems we face. You were elected by the people of Louisville to serve us, and with a mandate to change the leadership and culture that led to the audit and threat of state takeover we now face. You have met that challenge head on and not denied that JCPS must change and address the problems mentioned in the audit. Unlike our state board of education, you are not afraid to take calls, answer emails, and interact with the communities in which you serve. And unlike our Governor and the state board of education, I’ve never heard you express surprise that the west end of Louisville can host things like a chess club, question whether poor and minority parents care about their kids, or publicly say diversity and the Civil Rights Act are bad things.

Dr Pollio has the trust of his peers and far greater experience than the people who will decide JCPS’s fate. He, you as a board, and the community at large deserve to have a state Board of Education that works with JCPS and the community in fixing what needs fixing, not one bent on taking over and destroying what works. That is why I urge you to reject any offer made by the state board or commissioner Lewis that involves full or partial takeover. Thank you.

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Why Does Matt Bevin Hate Interpretive Dance? -- The Lane Report Interview

7/5/2018

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Matt Bevin's Lane Report interview is another masterpiece of ridiculous statements and attacks from the Governor. Here are a few excerpts of his comments with my thoughts.

Educational changes have been made by offering the chance for school choice in communities where the schools have failed for generations – with a lot of resistance. For the first time in a long time, the powerful voices of the teachers’ union, which defends mediocrity and outright failure, is no longer the voice of the day; it’s no longer being able to dictate that these kids who go to these schools are destined for failure.

It amuses me that a bellmaker with a degree in East Asian Studies is suddenly an expert in education. Somehow the narrative is always that teachers with advanced degrees and years of experience embrace mediocrity while those who aren't in a union are magically great no matter where they came from.

In order to believe this, you have to believe that teachers embrace failure and encourage it in students. Bevin is not a part of JCPS, refuses to even engage with parents, teachers, or students from the schools, and has no idea why kids aren't hitting certain performance metrics, or what those metrics even mean. Rather than work with schools and understand, Bevin's been in attack mode since he carpetbagged his way here.

When seven out of 10 children in the African-American community in Jefferson County cannot read at grade level, we have failed an entire subsection of our inner city. That is a bad indictment on the status quo. Something has to change. When 32 percent of children in Kentucky cannot recognize text in the third grade – not just read below grade level, cannot recognize text; they are functionally illiterate in the third grade – these are little dirty secrets that the teachers’ union doesn’t want to talk about. And they will not talk about it, because then they can pretend that these hundreds and hundreds of administrators, making six figures and not touching the classroom, are somehow justified. But they’re not. We’re wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on administrative costs, robbing our children.

Notice how Matt Bevin lays blame for educational achievement solely at the feet of educators and public schools, rather than address the many factors that play into underachievement. Among the things he never mentions that cannot be solved by teachers:

Poverty
Lack of affordable housing (which his own church appears to be working to worsen)
Lack of transportation (which makes it easier for parents to get to decent jobs and schools)
Lack of access to affordable healthcare (which Bevin just made worse)
Hunger
Racist economic policies
Lack of access to affordable shopping options and healthy food
Violent crime
Incarceration of one or both parents
The great difficulty of breaking the cycle of poverty

Teachers are supposed to magically insert themselves into a child's life for a few hours each day once a child reaches 5 or 6 and make up for any deficiency in a child's life.

It would be nice if reporters started challenging Matt Bevin on his assertions. Maybe they should ask him to talk about how his own family, or the families in Christian Academy, Anchorage Independent, and other private and wealthy public school districts might be different than a family in poverty, and what those differences might mean in the educational outcomes for a student. Of course, that would require Matt Bevin sitting for an interview with someone that might challenge him.

We’re seeing a tremendous amount of change at the federal level already. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is truly an extraordinary public servant, and his dedication, his knowledge, his ability to effect change and move with a sense of urgency is like nothing that has ever been seen in the history of the EPA.

Let's ignore Scott Pruitt's disastrous policy ideas and the tremendous adverse impacts that the environment can have on a child's health and learning. Instead, let's focus on how the ethically bankrupt Scott Pruitt used his position to enhance his own lifestyle and enrich his bank account. He abused the public trust, but Matt Bevin considers him "an extraordinary public servant." Given the amount of public funds that are at stake in education, can we expect to see some of Bevin's own appointees doing "extraordinary" work and exploiting the state for personal gain?

MG: Workforce skills are the most important criteria for business and industry site selectors. Your administration’s Kentucky Work Ready Skills Initiative leveraged $100 million to fund 40 workforce training programs that got more than $110 million in private-sector matching money. What impact do you hope to see and what is the timetable for seeing the benefits?
MB: This $100 million that we put out, people had to compete for that. The local high school, the local college and the local business community had to sit down together and come up with a proposal where each of them would contribute something to their application in the form of money and/or time and/or training and/or resources. It forced great dialogue, where the high school, college and business community, for the first time ever in some communities, began to talk with each other. What is the purpose of putting this money into education, in terms of workforce training, and what is it we in the workforce really need? For the first time, people were speaking face to face about this.
We had $540 million worth of applications for the $100 million that was available, so we got to choose the best 18 percent of the applications. The $100 million we put up wasn’t to build new buildings; this was to actually train people, scale programs. Dozens of them were put in place or expanded. It was matched by actually closer to about $140 million of additional money that came from the private sector and local communities. So nearly a quarter of a billion dollars is being invested in workforce training in just a two-year period.
We are developing training programs specifically for certain companies, in conjunction with local technical schools and four-year universities, sometimes in conjunction with apprenticeship programs that are starting now even with high school students. We’ve put dual-credit classes into schools so that high school juniors and seniors, and even some down below that, are able to take classes that apply to postsecondary training as well as toward their graduation from high school. Some students are now, at the time they graduate high school, also graduating simultaneously with associate’s degrees and/or certifications. And some of these certifications are stackable in things that employers are highly demanding right now.
All of this is being done to make sure we in Kentucky have the best, most proactive, most intentional workforce development training program of any state in America. Putting in a quarter of a billion in two years has already produced great results, but it’s only just beginning. We will do this again as we move forward, and these are the types of things that in time will continue to bear tremendous fruit. The proof is in the fact that more and more companies are coming here with the confidence that they will get the type of employees with the type of training that they need and want.

TThis sounds reasonable to most people, right? We're training young people for employment. What is the purpose of education if it's not helping people learn what they need to learn to get employment and become a productive part of society?

But if you read between the lines, you see a lot more going on. Companies are looking for highly skilled manufacturing labor, but not at the wages and benefits that those jobs paid when I was a kid. And companies are squeezing profit out of their businesses by spending less and less time and money on training their own employees. Why bother if you can get the state to pay for them? These workforce training initiatives are essentially a form of corporate welfare meant to pay for training that employers used to be willing to do themselves.

In the next question of the interview (which I'll get to in a second), Governor Bevin talks about the marketplace of jobs as it relates to programs of study. I'm curious why Bevin doesn't hold private employers to the same standards as our public universities. After all, if there are jobs being unfilled, might it mean that the job is not attractive enough for people to take it? Why aren't we telling our businesses to put more money of their own into training, wages, and benefits to make sure that these jobs are attractive and able to be filled?

Additionally, as someone who lived through the great decline of manufacturing in this country, can Governor Bevin speak to what happens when companies once again shift their jobs away from the United States? Will this workforce that we've trained be able to just move into another job, or will that highly specialized skill set be of little use?

MG: How are the state’s colleges and universities performing in their role of preparing state residents for success and in providing the private sector with the skilled workforce it needs now and will need in the near future?

MB: In certain areas very well and in other areas not well at all, so on average less than expected by the workforce. It’s why we are moving to outcome-based funding. We do invest close to a billion dollars a year in taxpayer money to postsecondary education, and it’s spread around our institutions of higher learning, from the technical schools to UK, to UofL, Morehead State, Murray State, Eastern, Northern, Western, all of them. We’re investing money, and we, the taxpayers, expect a payback.

Frankly, interdisciplinary studies or interpretive dance…there aren’t jobs out there. Not in Kentucky, not enough to justify having programs that are staffed by highly compensated faculty teaching a handful of students skills that are not needed in the marketplace. Study after study is increasingly showing even more traditional subjects are just not demanded in the 21st-century workforce. I personally have a liberal arts degree; there’s tremendous value associated with getting a liberal arts degree. But if you only study and learn for the sake of studying and learning, and you only pursue that which is intellectually stimulating but has no application capability, then you’re going to be in trouble, both as an individual and as an institution that tries to sustain itself training such people. We have to rethink how we do it, and that’s what we’re doing with outcome-based funding.

Matt Bevin really has a thing against interpretive dance, doesn't he? Was he once spurned by a ballerina? Does he have two left feet?

Notice how Matt Bevin doesn't mention - and the softball interview doesn't call out - that he has a degree in East Asian Studies. And yet somehow he was able to take that and become a successful businessman and Governor of Kentucky.

I'm curious what "traditional subjects are just not demanded in the 21st-century workforce." Is he talking about English? Maybe he can talk to a few communications people in his own administration about clear writing. History? Maybe he can talk to any number of fields about how the past is used to dissect the present and plan for the future. Dance? Maybe he should visit his own adopted hometown of Louisville and see what goes on at various theaters around town.

But it's this statement that blows me away: "if you only study and learn for the sake of studying and learning, and you only pursue that which is intellectually stimulating but has no application capability, then you’re going to be in trouble, both as an individual and as an institution that tries to sustain itself training such people."

I've never met any employer, trainer, or teacher who considers a person who studies and learns for the sake of studying and learning to be a liability. And I also have never met anyone who can say with certainty that any course of learning has no "application capability."

I have a degree in Broadcasting and Film. I made several 16 MM films using technology that is all but obsolete. I am guessing Matt Bevin would consider that a waste. But in making those films I learned several skills:

Budgeting
Making the most with the least
Scheduling
Dealing with workers
Disaster recovery (I lost a day's work when the film got eaten by my camera)
Telling a story
Planning
Time management

More importantly, my liberal arts degree and love of learning kept me constantly looking in new directions and picking up new skills, some of which weren't useful in the moment, but would prove useful later.

And who is to say that today's class won't lead to tomorrow's insight? Consider Steve Jobs. Years ago he sat in on a class about calligraphy, a course that Governor Bevin would no doubt say was of little value. From that course, Jobs worked toward developing not just the fonts we use, but the way in which they are displayed on our computers. It's a small piece of the Apple story, but it also helped change the face of computing, where text was displayed in only a few unattractive and unevenly spaced fonts. Who's to say that today's interpretive dancer won't use techniques picked up in class to revolutionize medicine, or even manufacturing, or create the next small business that turns into a job creating conglomerate?

It is clear that Matt Bevin and his counterparts focusing on education are not interested in improving education or creating a highly capable workforce capable of meeting any challenge. Instead Bevin and his corporate friends want to create a generation of corporate drones who don't learn, think, or question, but rather simply do. Like his counterpart in the White House, Matt Bevin seems to hate education, intellectual pursuits, and critical thinking. But I suppose it makes sense. Educated critical thinkers are less likely to vote for people like Matt Bevin.

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Phil Moffett, Oldham County, School Choice, and the Unmentioned Hypocrisy of Conservative Educational Rhetoric

6/12/2018

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Private school graduate, Phil Moffett is at it again. This time going after Oldham County Schools in a series of tweets.

If changes are made, students will be assigned making them captive to certain schools. If students can't move freely schools that best meet their needs, will quality persist? I'm skeptical.
— Phil Moffett (@philmoffett) June 12, 2018

Competition, with individuals acting in their best interests, brings higher quality than government bureaucrats making decisions for everyone.
— Phil Moffett (@philmoffett) June 12, 2018

Phil, as usual, is talking out of his hindquarters.

Oldham County doesn't have choice. It has a transfer policy. This transfer policy states, "Upon proper application, the Superintendent may permit students who reside in one Oldham County School attendance district to attend another Oldham County school provided such approval does not result in employment of additional staff, an imbalance in class size, or overcrowding in the receiving school."

In other words, Oldham County is following established policy.

Oldham County didn't get where it is through competition. My parents moved here in 1975. That happens to be the same year that Jefferson County Public Schools was ordered to desegregate and a busing plan went into place. At that time, Louisville saw a massive flight of wealthy white people to surrounding counties and private schools. Phil Moffett went to a private school. My brother and I wound up in Oldham County.

Oldham County schools were not great in 1975. My brother's spelling textbook was one he'd had two years prior in Maryland. His science textbook said "someday man will walk on the moon." My mother said when she went to register my brother that first year there was nobody at the front office to greet her. She wandered into the office and found the principal of the elementary school sitting on his desk with his arms around two members of his young office staff, giggling like school kids.

The new parents that flooded Oldham County demanded change and got it. A respected superintendent, a great new principal (we miss you, Mr. Jacovino) for my elementary school, and a lot of parental involvement helped whip them into shape, not "competition". For my entire career there it only had one high school and two middle schools. It was not the highest performing district in the state because of "competition", but because it was and remains among the wealthiest districts in the state and the parents within it send their kids to the schools.

If you look at Oldham County's data, you'll see that much like Jefferson County, its test scores align with the wealth of those that attend. LaGrange Elementary has a population of 143 students on free and reduced lunch. That represents 56% of their population. 43.1% of their student body is proficient in reading. 40.7% is proficient in math.

Contrast that with Goshen at Hillcrest Elementary in the affluent Goshen/Prospect area. Just 28 students are on free and reduced lunch, representing 7.7% of their population. 77.4% of their population is proficient in reading. 74.7% is proficient in math.

Is Goshen at Hillcrest a better school, or are the kids at Goshen at Hillcrest simply living in more fortunate circumstances? Phil Moffett would have you believe that simply putting all of those LaGrange kids in Goshen at Hillcrest would turn them around. But would it? There is a huge achievement gap at Goshen at Hillcrest between overall performance and the performance for free and reduced lunch students. Have you ever heard any politician call that out? Me either.

THE PROBLEM WITH "CHOICE"

Phil Moffett, Interim Kentucky Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis, Kentucky Board of Education members Hal Heiner, Ben Cundiff, Milton Seymore, and other conservative education privatizers love to talk of the notion of "choice".

The cool thing in Jefferson County is that we currently have choice. Parents have the following options:

Magnet programs
Schools within clusters
District transfers (like what Oldham County has) where you can ask to be moved to any school

These are all awesome, but they bring their own set of issues

Overcrowding in areas where demand exceeds capacity
Transportation concerns with how students will get to programs that are too expensive to replicate in multiple schools
Mistaking test performance for school performance
The false perception of "winners" and "losers"

All of these issues play out in Jefferson County every day. Jefferson County offers parents a choice. Parents who take a more active role in their children's education tend to look for the "best" schools. These parents also tend to provide the most support for their kids, which in turn makes these "best" schools look better. In the meantime, schools with lower scores tend to continue to underperform because of these same factors. It's telling that private school champions and education profiteers like Phil Moffett, BIPPS, Hal Heiner, Wayne Lewis, Ben Cundiff, tend to dance around these issues when it comes to the charter and private schools they support, but go into critic mode when these issues occur in public schools. In fact, Moffett seems to change his concerns based on what's happening at the moment in public schools. Consider this tweet.

@bgconservative @May4KY32 More importantly the PAC supports continued busing and NO to neighborhood schools. We need change no status quo.
— Phil Moffett (@philmoffett) May 19, 2014

Here Phil Moffett says he is against "busing" and wants neighborhood schools. Is he aware that JCPS' transportation plan enables a choice of schools within the district, and without it many kids would have far fewer choices? Oldham County has neighborhood schools, but he's saying people should be able to choose not to go to them. Make up your mind, Phil.

This problem extends to our education commissioner. Wayne Lewis, in the June 6, 2018 Kentucky Board of Education meeting mentioned that he was concerned about the kids who didn't get into high demand programs in Kentucky. Cool. I'm right there with him.

But how far are these far-right conservatives willing to go to preserve "choice"? If Wayne Lewis wants more students to be able to get into YPAS, is he going to push for funding to expand the school campus, its facilities, and transportation to get kids there? Or will he support building more facilities elsewhere around town with qualified staffing? How about Phil Moffett? Will he put more money into facilities in Oldham County? Will he also support those who are perfectly fine with their kids being in schools that aren't busting out at the seams, or will he say we should close those schools because they aren't in demand? Will Hal Heiner, BIPPS, Matt Bevin, Wayne Lewis, Ben Cundiff, and all of the others who claim to care so much about education and choice be willing to fund a whole series of choices for students like are currently available in JCPS? Will they be willing to fund expansion of these programs at several schools and/or increased transportation to get to them? Will they fund these programs in other districts that don't have them?

Of course the answer is no. Because this isn't about choice. It's about using any and all ammunition you can find to attack our public school system and divert public funds to the businesses and schools these men care about. Their core philosophy is to reduce spending on government resources. Matt "East Asian Studies Major" Bevin himself saw budget cuts as a positive in higher education because "for the first time in a very long time, our state universities are looking at what they offer that is adding value, and what they are offering that adds less value. Or maybe no value. Or maybe negligible value.”

He went onto add, "Where are we getting, as taxpayers, a good return on the investment we’re making? It’s still close to $1 billion that taxpayers put into postsecondary education every year here in Kentucky, and it’s important that we get a good return on that. So we want programs offered that result in jobs and job opportunities for the graduates. That’s why we’re subsidizing them. That’s what it is, it’s taxpayer money.”

Do you think attitudes like that are going to be digging deep to find funding for high school arts programs, journalism programs, or any other choices that don't align with what they feel is useful? Dream on.

If you want to preserve choice, it's time to push back on these individuals and tell them to put their money where their mouth is or shut up.

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It's Time To Fight Back Against Evil - Background on my June 6th Speech

6/12/2018

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On June 6th, I had two speeches written for the Kentucky Board of Education. The first was a relatively kind speech asking that the board please reconsider state takeover. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t really sure why.

So I started writing another much angrier speech. It stemmed from reading a comment from Kentucky’s new Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis asking why people weren’t outraged by JCPS rejecting a Head Start grant and the abuses that led to that decision.

I decided if he wanted outrage, I’d give him some. It’s boiled for 11 years as I’ve watched people attacking public education and public schools, not in an effort to seek improvement, but as a way to ram their own agendas through.

When you fight for public education, you get used to people claiming you have hidden agendas. I have been told I work for the teacher’s union. If only. I was in Frankfort because I took a vacation day and drove two hours round trip at my expense. I was there representing myself as a parent of JCPS.

On Wednesday, as I sat in the meeting, I was running on 3 hours sleep. I was nervous because I felt like I was going against disinterested evil. The men and women of the Kentucky Board of Education have no kids in Jefferson County Public Schools. There are only two educators involved, and both have limited public school experience. Our new educational commissioner served five years total in three separate schools, ten years ago. They all claim they want to help disadvantaged kids. But their personal histories show their racism and financial motivations are clear.

As I sat in the meeting and heard one member of a Kentucky agency lie about JCPS and how principals were hired, and then I heard Wayne Lewis talk about his strategy, my watch beeped an alarm. My heart rate was over 120 for ten minutes. I was doing nothing but sitting in a chair. My normal resting heart rate is about 60 to 65.

I left the room and sat in a chair by a window writing my second speech. The outraged one. I wasn’t sure at the time if I should give it. Right up until one o’clock I was adjusting.

But then I thought about it. For 11 years I’ve been going through this. Fighting for public education. Fighting for the idea that teachers are decent as a whole, public schools are decent as a whole, and that it’s not enough to attack the areas that are “failing”, you have to provide them with support as well. You have to identify root causes and address them if you want to improve, even if that means looking beyond the 7 or so hours a kid is in school.

These people have no solutions beyond trashing our public schools and replacing them with schools that enrich the private sector. They don’t care about “choice”. They don’t care about the education of poor and minority children. If they did, their social and economic policies wouldn’t continually attack them. If their efforts at privatization still leave kids behind, they’ll still be blaming the teachers in public schools, and saying “the system worked” when they close a charter school and leave kids scrambling for a place to attend school.

And I’m tired of giving the evil people a pass in public. You should not be able to call diversity a bad concept, question if African American students “have parents”, say teachers “murdered” students because they reject the nonsense of charter schools, or be able to eliminate an elected body that serves 1/7th of the public school students in the state for political purposes. That’s who this board is. They are not good people. They serve at the whim of a narcissist so thin-skinned that he uses a prayer service for Marshall County High School shooting victims to attack two pastors who dared call him out for his asinine prayer walk strategy for combatting violence in the West End. Not just any pastors either, but two who see the people of the West End as more than a stop for a photo op. When this Board of Education agreed to serve for Governor Matt Bevin, they said they were okay with this behavior. They said they were okay with an arrogant and corrupt Governor who calls teachers “thugs”, continually attacks public school systems, and fights reasonable tax assessments that fund public education.

When I graduated high school in 1989, teachers were respected and glorified. Public education was seen as an institution to build up, not tear down. Teachers and their motivations have not changed. They still do more good for a broader range of people at a better return on investment than any CEO, and with much more compassion. But years of political maneuvering and messaging by billionaires who hate strong public institutions has eroded that ideal. And it will finish the job unless we act to point out the truth.

The men and women of the Kentucky Board of Education do not care about public education. They are a mishmash of private school parents, friends of Bevin, radical and racist Tea Party ideologues, and people who have been working together for close to a decadent privatize public education funds. They are not working to make life better for my child or any other in public schools. That’s why I called them out on June 6th. I don’t regret it. I just hope I’m not alone.

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My Comments To The Kentucky Board of Education About State Takeover on June 6, 2018

6/9/2018

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Below is the text of the speech I made to the Kentucky Board of Education. I wrote this that morning after laying awake most of the night pondering if I should give the speech I'd already written or another one. I will describe my feelings that day in another post. I've edited it a bit for clarity and included the portion I didn't get a chance to finish.

My name is Rob Mattheu. I am a parent of Madeline, a Junior in the visual arts magnet who has been a student at JCPS for the past 11 years. She is the most important person in my and my wife’s life. That is why I am here, and why I’ve been visible and vocal in JCPS for those 11 years, including attending almost every board meeting of the last two years of Dr. Hargens' failed leadership that led to a state audit. And that’s why I'm here today to ask you to vote no to state takeover.

Interim Commissioner Lewis, in commenting on the recent news of JCPS giving up its Head Start grant, said “Where is the sense of outrage in our community?”   I know it’s not fair to expect a man who has been in his job for less than two months to have a sense of the community, so I’ll share what I’ve observed from my 11 years in JCPS and a bit of outrage of my own.

In the last two years of her tenure, I never talked to a parent, teacher, staff member, or student who was happy with the leadership of Dr. Hargens. In fact, if you start watching the district from the time her contract renewal, you will see a downward spiral that led to lots of outrage. I and others spoke in meetings about concerns with academics, bullying, discipline, achievement gaps, inequalities in punishment for children, and issues that included many of the same findings in your audit. We were indeed outraged, Mr. Lewis. We care about these audit findings and want to see change. It’s not my fault that you and the several members of the board here from Louisville weren’t present and didn’t ask for our opinion.

But you know what, that’s not my only reason for outrage.

I’m outraged that my Governor, who refuses to pay his fair share of property taxes, and puts his kids in private schools, has manipulated state law to stack this board with education profiteers and friends, and a commissioner sympathetic to his education agenda.
I’m outraged that if state takeover is successful, I lose my voice into my daughter’s education and see it replaced by a man with little K-12 educational experience and a Board of Education with no accountability to the people of Louisville.

I’m outraged that we are here talking about serving disadvantaged kids, but we have board members who have publicly attacked diversity initiatives, believe businesses should have the right to discriminate and have questioned if children in the West End of Louisville “have parents”. With thinking like that, what guarantee do I have that they’re looking out for our kids?
I’m outraged that in their rush to appoint a new chairman and commissioner of education, this board held a special meeting where they violated open meetings law and their own board policies.
I’m outraged that we have a board and governor who continually attacks our teachers, including one member who hates teachers unions and says teachers “murdered” underserved children because they didn’t support charters. Wonder why he hasn’t addressed our governor’s plan for dealing with actual murder in Louisville’s West End via prayer walks.
I’m outraged by a board member who has spent years creating numerous agencies and social media presences devoted to charters and privatization of education with at least two of his fellow board members and Commissioner Lewis. He blocks and ignores dissenting discussion and questions about charters.
I’m outraged that our board chair stood beside an openly homophobic pastor from Indiana who asks for charters because he sees dollar signs in his future.
I’m outraged that we have board members who feel there should not be drunk driving laws, reject the sound science of climate change, and who have said on social media, “basically, liberals and progressives hate the human race.”

But most of all I’m outraged by these things.

I’m outraged that I have to be here at all, taking a day off from work, something most of disadvantaged parents can’t afford to do, and driving two hours round trip for perhaps my only opportunity to address this board and know my concerns are heard. Perhaps you could take a lesson from JCPS’ board, allow advance sign up, not place artificial limits on speakers, hold meetings in locations around the state, and most importantly at times that are convenient to the citizens of Kentucky.
I’m outraged that in a meeting filled with people talking about “choice”, the choice of Jefferson County voters in their elected school board is not discussed.
I’m outraged that my choice for my daughter could be undermined by a state takeover, and that the fate of my daughter’s future and 100,000 other students in JCPS lies in the hands of you, a group of people with minimal to no stake in Jefferson County Public Schools.
But most of all I’m outraged that a single man with minimal primary K-12 experience and a few days on the job feels ready to tell us that JCPS should be taken over. And I'm outraged he has sought minimal input from JCPS parents, spent minimal time in the district, and can provide no coherent plan for what he would do differently to ensure success where others have failed.

You want to talk about choice? My family and 100,000 others made our choice, ladies and gentleman. We should be allowed to have our say in that choice. Board members would expect the same at Christian Academy, KCD, and wherever you might send your kids.

Soon you will make your choice for JCPS. We will be watching, and we will hold you accountable for it.

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It's Time To Focus On Our Children -- Wayne Lewis' Blog Post-- Annotated Edition

5/22/2018

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Wayne Lewis recently posted a blog post entitled "It's Time To Focus On Our Children" in which he pretends the conversation surrounding his quick political rise and potential dismantling of Jefferson County Public Schools is NOT about the kids in our school system. I've decided to repost in full with my own comments in red.

I have now had the privilege of serving as Kentucky’s interim education commissioner for a little over a month. Understandably, I have been asked lots of questions. Most of the questions I have fielded in public settings have been similar. Why did you not filed those questions in a public setting in Jefferson County? In fact, I can put them into two broad areas: “What is your plan for charter schools?” and “What kind of relationship do you intend to have with KEA/JCTA?”

Those questions are fine. As they are posed, I respond. But not in his blog post. But I have been disappointed with how infrequently I get public questions about students, student learning, student achievement, and student readiness. How are questions about charter schools and relationships with teachers NOT questions about students, student learning, student achievement, and student readiness? It’s no secret that student learning in Kentucky, as measured by standardized achievement examinations, has been stagnant at best, an in some cases has taken a step backward. Why? Do you know? Incredible racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps either remain unmoved or widen. Why? Do you know? And despite a pretty impressive state high school graduation rate, we continue to graduate approximately 40% of high school seniors who have attained neither college readiness nor career readiness benchmarks. Given how much work we have to do with improving student learning and how little progress we have made as of late, it surprises me and disappoints me that so little of our current discussion in public education centers on children’s learning. It only feels that way if you’re not really listening to what is being said, Wayne. Teachers and schools are a part of learning. Over one-seventh of the state’s public school students are facing the very real possibility that their district will be taken out of the hands of a democratically elected school board because of an audit based on the actions of a Superintendent whose failures were recognized by the parents, students, teachers, staff, voters, and school board, which led to her replacement with a capable and dedicated Superintendent who is doing great things. The appointment of you as our commissioner, judge, jury, and potentially executioner of our schools DOES play a part in discussion of learning for our children. You have less than half the K-12 teaching experience of the teachers you’re passing judgement on, and you come to the table with a solution of charter schools, but have yet to explain what the issues are that keep children from learning or how your “charter school” fix will actually do anything to remedy that.

Honestly, I think we forget sometimes that children and families are in fact the end-users of our public education system. Not true. That’s why many of us are upset that our state board of education includes several individuals who don’t put their kids in public schools and have deep ties to private schools or education privatizes.   I’ve been advocating for my child and all children in JCPS for 11 years now. You’ve got about a month in. Even more forgotten is the reality that for many years, we have not served large segments of our students as well as we should. According to Kentucky achievement data, students who have the best shot at success in our system are middle income and affluent White students without a disability, planning to attend a four-year postsecondary institution following high school graduation. This is a nationwide problem that extends beyond the school systems. Please identify all of the factors that play into this and how you will address them. If you are a low-income student, a student of color, a student with a disability, a student interested in pursuing a technical field that requires less than a four-year degree, or a student with some combination of those characteristics, our track record is pretty spotty. The achievement gap and the skills gap in Kentucky continue to be major barriers to student success and economic development. Wait, you’re saying a lack of success is a barrier to success?   What a bold statement. As to economic development, is that not a chicken and egg situation? Are our minority and impoverished communities not doing well economically because their kids aren’t achieving in school, or are they not achieving in school because their families do not have the same economic opportunities?

To all the questions about charter schools: Public charter schools are simply one of many tools to be used in our public education system to help meet the needs of students we are not currently serving well; either because traditional approaches have not been adequate for meeting students’ unique learning needs, or because there is an insufficient supply of public school options available that align with students’ interests.   Even with a healthy charter school sector, district schools will continue to be the vehicle we use for educating the vast majority of students in Kentucky, even in Jefferson and Fayette counties.

Notice how he’s being purposely vague here. The fact is that the same forces pushing “choice” were actively pushing legislation that would take away school choices in JCPS.   What Lewis fails to mention here is that simply choosing a school for your child is a reflection of parental involvement in the education process that leads to successful outcomes. The charter law that Lewis championed does not allow a child to be placed into a charter school by the public school system itself. It requires a parent or guardian to make that choice. This means that kids who have nobody in their corner will wind up in the regular public school system by default. Will Lewis find the money and resources to help more popular choices build capacity? Will Lewis consider it a success if choices that aren’t as popular or as successful as others are closed, even if they meet some student’s learning needs or align with some students’ interests? What will he do for kids who have nobody choosing for them? Will he blame the teachers in the schools where they wind up for factors out of their control?

To the questions about KEA and JCTA: Dialogue and partnership with teachers are critically important to achieving our collective goals for students. Ya’ think? There is no more important element of our system than classroom teachers. High quality teachers are worth their weight in gold. But we cannot forget that unions are not the end-users of our public education system; Kentucky’s students and families are. Our decision making must be driven first and foremost by what’s best for children.   This statement implies that unions, which are made up of teachers, care less about the students than they do themselves. This is patently false. The men and women that Wayne Lewis has aligned himself with have no issues with a CEO seeking incentives, benefits and financial security for themselves, but attack teachers for doing the same through their union. Teachers have intensive training, work long hours, and often use their own money to take up the slack of underfunded classrooms. To suggest that doing things to keep teachers content somehow is NOT in the best interests of our children is asinine.   Our teachers are kind, empathetic, and hard working, and they deserve to be compensated now and into their retirements for that. It’s part of the deal.
I am curious, though.   Is Wayne Lewis’ own abandonment of teaching after five years at three different schools an admission that he wasn’t a great teacher, or that he was motivated by something outside of selfless service to kids? Why didn’t he stick it out?

As I have spent time in Lexington and Louisville over the last few weeks, the private questions and concerns parents and grandparents share with me are much different from the questions reporters ask me. Most parents and grandparents I have talked with don’t ask me about charter schools or teachers unions. Instead, they express their deep concern about the quality of education their children and grandchildren are receiving, and they ask me to do whatever I can to help ensure their children are being well-prepared for their futures. I assure each one of them that I will do everything in my power to make sure that is the case, and I will. Wayne, I would tell you the same thing if you were brave enough to give me and the parents, teachers, and staff of 100,000 JCPS students the opportunity. But my concerns about charter schools and teachers ARE concerns about my daughter being prepared for the future with the choices my family made in the system MY family choose, not the politicized model a group of disinterested businessmen and an inexperienced Education Commissioner wish to make.

Let’s take this opportunity to reset our focus and our conversation on improving learning for our children. With children as our focus, together, we can move mountains. I’m not sure if that’s a mountain, or years of having dirt kicked in our face, Wayne.

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Kentucky Board of Education -- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

5/19/2018

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The hastily called special meeting of the Kentucky Board of Education (video above) on April 17, 2018 was so ineptly handled that it would have been comical if not for the fact that its end result was so devastating. In the meeting the board violated its own policy and state law numerous times, made motions that made it clear they couldn't be bothered to familiarize itself with its own policies, and appears to have left itself without a vice-chairman.

The Attorney General has already weighed in that the Board of Education violated state laws regarding closed session, stating:

“Based upon the limited but unrefuted information of record, which indicates only that Commissioner Pruitt’s employment contract was discussed and later amended following the closed session at issue, this office concludes that the Board violated the Act in discussing a general personnel matter that exceeded the scope of (state law) during its closed session."

But watching the meeting again, there are many other violations and missteps that make the board look ridiculous.

These surround the fifth agenda item, election of a Chair and Vice-Chair.

Board Chairman Rich Gimmel refers to himself in the meeting as "interim chair" and mentions the need to have a new election to ensure an orderly transition.

The problem is that the board already has a chairman. That chairman is Rich Gimmel. As the elected Vice Chair of the board, Rich Gimmel became the chairman of the board on April 16, 2018 after the term of chairman Mary Gwen Wheeler expired. The Kentucky Board of Education Policy Manual makes this crystal clear:

In the event that a vacancy occurs prior to the end of the term of the chair, the vice chair will become chair and complete the rest of the previous chair’s term.

Rich Gimmel presumably knew this, as he was elected Vice-Chair at the same August 3, 2017 board meeting in which a nominating committee stated that a Chair and Vice-Chair should be, "(k)nowledgeable of KBE responsibilities, practices, rules and regulations."

Or maybe he wasn't, because as soon as he moved for a special election for Chair and Vice-Chair, he violated board policy.

At about 1:37 PM, Chairman Gimmel made a motion to elect Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Education. He then made a recommendation that the board waive the rules under pages 6 and 7 of the Policy Manual, regarding the timing of the election of officers and the “waiving” of the nomination committee procedure. This motion was passed.

The Kentucky Board of Education Policy Manual and the laws of the State of Kentucky are the guidelines by which the Board is to operate. Board Policy indicates under Rules of Order:

Except as modified by Board Policy, Robert’s Rules of Order (most recent edition) shall constitute the rules of parliamentary procedure applicable to all meetings of the board and its committees.

Section 25 of Robert’s Rules of Order, 11th edition, Section 25, RULES THAT CANNOT BE SUSPENDED, states:

“Rules contained in the bylaws (or constitution) cannot be suspended— no matter how large the vote in favor of doing so or how inconvenient the rule in question may be—unless the particular rule specifically provides for its own suspension”

This means that by waiving the rules under the heading "OFFICERS" in the Kentucky Board of Education Policy Manual, Rich Gimmel and the board have violated the policies by which they as a Board have created to govern and guide their actions.

What is even stranger is that there really appears to have been no pressing need to do so. State law KRS 156.029 calls for a new Chair to be elected at the first regular meeting of the fiscal year, which would have been only two meetings away (if you include this special meeting). Could Rich Gimmel not have held out until then? Why would he volunteer to serve again as Vice-Chair if he knew that he couldn't handle the duties of Chair?

It is rather amusing to watch what happens when the floor is open to nominations. After Milton Seymore gets a nomination, new board member Joe Papalia nominates Hal Heiner to be Chair, and you can almost hear the voices in the room saying "dude, this isn't what we scripted out" as Hal Heiner makes a pause so pregnant it could deliver quintuplets, stutters a bit, and then says he defers to the nomination of Seymore because of his tenure on the board.

It appears that Joe Papalia hadn't read his policy manual either, because it clearly states that in order to be nominated as Chair or Vice-Chair, a member had to have served at least a year on the board.

Rich Gimmel then refers to Seymore as "interim Chairman", which makes you wonder why the election was necessary in the first place. Will they be nominating a new Chair in their next regular meeting as their Policy Manual and an Executive Order by Governor Matt Bevin states? Will they be nominating a new Chair in the meeting following the next as KRS 156.029 stipulates? Do they even know? Does it matter? Does anything matter?

Then comes the final bit of ridiculousness (if you don't count Milton Seymore's inept handling of the rest of the meeting and the farce of nominating Wayne Lewis). There is no election for Vice-Chair. Milton Seymore takes his seat as chair, stumbles his way through the rest of the meeting, and the meeting is adjourned without electing a Vice-Chair.

These are the people who will decide the fate of Jefferson County Schools. I've attended a few dozen JCPS board meetings and I've never seen a farce like the one on display on April 17, 2018. If they can't handle the simple task of following their own rules, how can they pass judgement on our Board or our schools.

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State Takeover of JCPS -- What's In It For Bevin, Heiner, and the Kentucky GOP?

4/19/2018

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In the years I've been following Hal Heiner's push for education privatization, I've always figured the motive was one of two things. Divert public money to companies in which Heiner or his friends have an interest, or divert money to private schools in which Heiner and his friends have an interest to help further religious viewpoints. I assumed that Heiner and friends focused on economically depressed areas with heavy minority populations because it was good cover for their motives.

But a few weeks ago I read an article about how "good" schools in economically depressed areas are spurring housing prices upward. A thought came to my mind. What if this was a push to drive up prices in a real estate market that was cheap to invest in?

Then Governor Bevin forced out Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt with a Board of Education made up of several new Bevin appointees, including real estate developer Hal Heiner. It is thought that Pruitt was NOT going to say JCPS needed to be taken over by the state, so he had to be tossed out.

Then today an article came out in Insider Louisville about how the church Governor Bevin and Hal Heiner attend is starting to pour money into Louisville's West End real estate. This, combined with tax incentives for developers is spurring development in the area that is driving up property values, which is impacting both rent and property taxes for residents there.

So it got me thinking about how this is all going to shake out. There is lots of cheap real estate to be had in the West End. If you control the local public school board (via state takeover) AND control education at the state level, you dictate what happens with one of the primary drivers of home purchases, school systems. If you use both the law and funding to your advantage, you can shift funding and focus to schools in the areas you're trying to develop and help accelerate the real estate market you and your friends have already invested in. And since you have control of the schools, you can run traditional public schools in such a way that privatized charters and private schools look better by comparison, and thus receive more public funding and tuition. As an added bonus, perhaps your church, which has actively attempted to bring religion into public schools, gets a piece of the action.

Some might say it's far-fetched, but it's clear that both Bevin and Heiner have no qualms doing or saying whatever they need to get whatever they want. I certainly hope as this educational saga continues, our local media is playing very close attention and following the money.

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My Letter to Matt Bevin's New Board of Education

4/17/2018

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I sent this e-mail to the members of Matt Bevin's newly appointed board early this morning. As of 8 PM I have not received a response. Guess they were too busy working out today's scripted dismantling of public education.

Dear Members of the Kentucky Board of Education,

I write you today as a public school parent fed up with attacks on our public education system. I spent 12 years in Kentucky public schools and my daughter is a Sophomore in Jefferson County Public Schools, where she has been since Kindergarten.

We did not take our decision to put my daughter in JCPS lightly. I was a grad from Oldham County schools and my wife went to Catholic schools. Both of us heard the horror stories about busing and “failing schools” back when we were looking to put her in JCPS. But we did our research. We went to numerous schools to visit. We learned about our choices we had for our daughter and we took the plunge.

JCPS is not perfect. Far from it. And anyone in JCPS’ current school board can tell you that I have been very vocal for years about issues. But it is not the “failure” that we continue to hear from some of our leaders in Frankfort. And it is not something remedied by simply saying “teach better”.

The story of JCPS and indeed Kentucky is in the demographics. JCPS serves about 100,000 students with a high number of students who have great needs outside of our school system. Homelessness, unstable homes, hunger, poverty, lack of fixed address, and limited ability to speak English are just some of the barriers that a large urban district has. Unlike charter schools and private schools, JCPS and our schools throughout the state have to find a place for ALL kids and educate them.

If you look at the “worst” JCPS schools, you tend to see a data trend. High poverty indicators and low parental involvement. These are difficult for a school to address without a lot of resources.

JCPS’ data and outcomes are also skewed by the fact that so many kids with higher family incomes and high parental involvement attend private schools. Students with advantages tend to score better, and their parents tend to have a louder voice when it comes to making changes that improve education.

When you talk about “gaps”, you can’t do this without talking about the entire picture for kids who are falling into those gaps. We talk about “choices” like tax scholarships and charter schools, but there is little explanation of how this will raise achievement, or the fact that a kid with nobody at the plate to make choices for them will still suffer for it.

I do not know any of you, but I do know from research that many of you have ties to private schools and send your kids there. I struggle to see how a board that is so closely aligned with private schools can truly understand what public schools are like. I’m curious why you made the choice NOT to send your kids to public schools, and I’m curious if your perceptions line up with the reality of these schools. Having graduated from Oldham County Schools, I was oblivious to the great public/private divide in JCPS, but I have had some interesting conversations with friends and coworkers with kids in private schools who seem to have an ignorance of much of what goes on in JCPS beyond perceptions honed 40 years ago when busing was in its infancy.

The recent state audit surrounds events that occurred when Dr. Donna Hargens was in charge of JCPS. I can tell you as a parent during her tenure that few, if any, parents, teachers, staff, or students were happy with what happened during Hargens reign. Her wholesale changes of staff alienated many good district employees. Her lack of leadership led to much confusion and fear among the administration and the teachers at large. Her failure to attend to issues of violence, complaints about discipline, and many other issues are what led to her ouster. We have a new leader. Dr Pollio is someone with experience in the system and a tremendous desire to solve problems. He takes action when complaints are brought to his attention. He responds to parents in board meetings immediately when necessary. He is ready to right the ship and improve things. None of these were in evidence with Hargens.

Additionally, our board is the most focused on achievement across the spectrum as any board in my 11 years at JCPS, and has addressed the dysfunction that plagued it during Hargens’ tenure.

They, and we, deserve to be allowed to fix our problems from the last several years, and work to improve. But we also deserve not to be demonized by Frankfort policy makers who amplify the bad, ignore the good, and are not impacted by any decisions they make because their kids do not go to public schools. We need a holistic focus that realizes our teachers are only as good as the support the kids they teach have the 2/3rds of the day they are not in school.

I would ask that with that in mind you keep the consistent leadership of Stephen Pruitt, who has the respect of public educators statewide, and who has been involved in the state audit of JCPS since the beginning. Eliminating him and replacing him with someone else, especially someone with a political agenda, will not help the 100,000 plus students and their families in JCPS.

FInally, I ask that you talk to us. Talk to the parents. Talk to the teachers. Talk to the staff. Not just the ones who come to you with complaints, but the ones that are in it every day and love it. Learn from those who treasure public education. Stop demonizing our public educators. Stop attacking our schools as “failing”. Instead help us. Champion our cause. And improve Kentucky education.

Sincerely,

Rob Mattheu

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My Letter to the Kentucky Board of Education

My Speech to the JCPS Board of Education: Reject Any Settlement Offer With Wayne Lewis

Why Does Matt Bevin Hate Interpretive Dance? -- The Lane Report Interview

Phil Moffett, Oldham County, School Choice, and the Unmentioned Hypocrisy of Conservative Educational Rhetoric

It's Time To Fight Back Against Evil - Background on my June 6th Speech

My Comments To The Kentucky Board of Education About State Takeover on June 6, 2018

It's Time To Focus On Our Children -- Wayne Lewis' Blog Post-- Annotated Edition

Kentucky Board of Education -- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

State Takeover of JCPS -- What's In It For Bevin, Heiner, and the Kentucky GOP?

My Letter to Matt Bevin's New Board of Education

About Rob Mattheu

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