Column by Jacob Sims

Every state is experiencing difficult economic times and Kentucky is no exception. Our dilemmas could get worse if President Obama implements his “cap-and-trade” proposal. This would tax our use of coal, which powers approximately 93 percent of Kentucky homes. Other difficulties have already come from our own state legislature. They decided to indirectly tax one of our main cash crops (tobacco) and one of our trademark businesses (bourbon-whiskey). All the same, there is a $456 million budget shortfall and lawmakers are struggling to find ways to pay for the budget.

Besides challenging the tax code, one area that has been completely ignored as a means of saving money and improving our state is education reform.

The premise of this article is that, as a Republican, education is one of the issues in politics that I care about the most. I firmly believe, as Horace Mann once stated, that education “is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery,” and that education may be the best initiative that the government can invest in.

There are some grave anxieties I have in regard to education policies in our state. Currently, 44 percent of our general funds appropriations go toward K-12 education, which ends up being over $4 billion. I would be completely satisfied with these numbers if they were producing advantageous results. In 2007, Kentucky ranked 38th in the nation based on ACT scores.

This is certainly an improvement over being 44th in 2000, but both are downright insulting to our state. There are other methods used to determine education rank among the states and the results are equally disappointing.

There are also problems with the Department of Education’s financial software package called MUNIS, referred to as the “black hole” of the Kentucky education system. It is basically an accounting system for the public schools with no accountability. According to the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, it is estimated that the combined adjustments required to correct accounting errors totaled approximately $60 million, and they believe that this is only part of the concrete total. An example of this lack of accountability occurred in Johnson County where a finance officer and a payroll-clerk partner took more than $500,000 from the school system before they were caught simply by chance. Related events have occurred throughout Kentucky.

The larger issue is the amount of money spent and the results that are produced from that money. The United States is tied for spending the most money per student (over $11,000) among developed nations; however, we are in the middle of the pack when it comes to results in reading, math and science.

Washington D.C. is a great example of overspending and underperforming. There, almost $13,000 is spent per student, (3rd highest spending district in U.S.) and they are below the national average in every realm of K-12 education. For a brief time, they allowed voucher schools that cost roughly $7,000 per student and parents, almost unanimously, agreed that their student received a higher quality education. This ended when Eleanor Norton (D-DC) wanted to eliminate the more efficient and more productive voucher schools but simultaneously asked for more money for public schools.

The Chicago public schools also claimed that they need more money, even though it was estimated that they already spent $11,300 per student. Marva Collins started a private school for low-income minorities at $5,500 per student. Westside Preparatory School gained national attention for its prestige and student accomplishments. As Collins put it, “I have discovered few learning disabled students in my three decades of teaching. I have, however, discovered many victims of teaching inabilities.”

We, as Kentuckians, need to reevaluate our priorities and expand voucher schools so that parents can have educational freedom in selecting the school they want their child to attend. This would allow for competition between schools to improve their quality of education and make education more cost effective.

We must create charter schools, which are less expensive than public schools and are held accountable by student achievement instead of governmental regulation. We can also create alternative educational facilities that are taught by professionals from their respective fields, as opposed to traditional classroom teachers.

All of these are ideas that Republicans are proposing to improve our quality of life here in the Bluegrass State. If Kentucky invests in education and reforms the current system today, with a more educated population and more budgetary capital, we can take a giant step into solving the problems of Kentucky’s future.