Thread by @troysteinmetz

If we could get through this week without off-loading millions in KY taxpayer funds to for-profit charter school management companies…

….that’d be greeeeeeat. #kyga22

Context: KY still doesn’t fully fund, among others:
📌 Transportation to school
📌 Textbooks
📌 Kindergarten
And we’re talking about how KY’s public schools are irredeemably broken? Y’all…

Do you realize that Kentucky actually punches well above its weight class in education?

This IN SPITE of a near universal, and in some places precipitous, decline in teacher pay?

(Source: @KyPolicy)

And if we’re going to spend money to “address failing schools” maybe we should keep our eye on first base.

State funding for P-12 has declined for more than a decade, and the funding gap nearly erased by KERA in the early 90’s has returned.

📝: kypolicy.org/school-funding…

And don’t even get me started about the narrative of “failing schools” & how it’s weaponized against publics.

@mandy_mclaren highlighted big issues in JCPS’s magnet system, but it’s also clear the “low performing” label is based on unfair comparison.

📰: courier-journal.com/in-depth/news/…

My point is the same:

The car salesmen will try anything to sell you a new car.

Yes, we need repairs — and a whole lot more fuel — but the vehicle of public education in Kentucky is pretty incredible given our relative poverty as a state, and bills like HB9 would junk it.