FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2012
Contact: Martin Cothran
Phone: (859) 329-1919
Louisville, KY—A family group today in Kentucky criticized the Jefferson County School Board for imposing an additional tax on Jefferson County residents.
“In what has become an annual event, the overseers of Louisville’s public education system continue to believe the myth that increased funding will fix educational problems,” said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation.
The Jefferson County School board voted on Monday to increase taxes for the fifth straight year, from 67.7 cents to 70 cents per $100.
The Courier-Journal noted that “since 2008, the owner of a house assessed at $100,000 has seen a $62 increase in school taxes.”
“Has additional funding fixed JCPS’ past problems? No,” said Cothran. “Tax payers in Kentucky continue to fund a bureaucratic institution instead of funding individual students.”
Cothran continued: “Kentucky tax payers should stop being deceived. They should be told that their hard-earned dollars are not resulting in better results. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Dramatic increases in spending—both by the federal and local government—have presided over lagging test scores.”
Cothran noted a study from The Heritage Foundation, a Washington D.C. think-tank, that indicated average per-student spending on education in America exceeds $11,400.
“Just Imagine if each student was allowed to take the allotted money and choose where to invest in their education,” said Cothran. “The actions of the JCPS school board show again why Kentucky needs to pass a strong charter schools bill. (Emphasis Mine)
The key quote for the Family Foundation is the last one. Martin Cothran doesn't care about JCPS, he's interested in charter schools and diverting public funding from schools. Why? We could speculate.
Let's look at Martin Cothran's bio from the Family Foundation website. it states "Martin Cothran ( B.A – University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A. – Simon Greenleaf) is the senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation. Martin helped launch the organization and has been critical to its success. While Martin makes final policy decisions and manages strategy, he also teaches Latin, Logic, and publishes educational curricula (emphasis mine). In his spare time Martin lectures and maintains two blogs. Martin and his wife, Joyce, have four children. Martin also hosts a popular political blog in Kentucky called Vital Remnants."
Martin publishes educational curricula. Could it be that Cothran is seeing dollar signs in having tax dollars sent to charter schools or perhaps private schools via vouchers?
If we take a look at the Family Foundation's stance on education, we find that they've taken the time to highlight one issue of great concern, science standards. In big bold letters, the Kentucky Family Foundation lets everyone know: "Kentucky’s children will soon be taught to ‘master’ evolution so they can score well on their Biology End-of-Course exam, unless citizens object and sign the petition."
That's right, the Kentucky Family Foundation's biggest issue is that Kentucky's public schools will be teaching kids actual science in schools to prepare them for college. But you can put a stop to that if you simply sign their petition.
In my mind, if you don't want your children taught factual information in the classroom, you can feel free to homeschool them. I'm sure that Martin Cothran can hook you up with some materials to get you started.
In the meantime, Martin, if you truly believe your statement that "We need to be careful about school bureaucracies that want to kowtow to particular special interest political agendas and move back toward an academic emphasis in our schools", may I suggest that you keep your Lexington based political organization out of our schools and stop trying to attack the fundamental academic purity of science programs in the state? If you truly want to help families AND education in Louisville, perhaps you and your organization can come down here and man some clothing, food, or school supplies programs for needy children and their families. Or maybe you could or do some after school tutoring (no science, please) to help these kids get a leg up.