Published: October 19, 2009 05:28 pm      

Beshear names taks force for 21st century education reform

FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s legislature just this spring passed a major revision in its education reform – Senate Bill 1 to align high school curricula with college preparedness and simplifies its testing system.

But Gov. Steve Beshear wants more. Monday he named a task force to “create a unified vision of what schools in the commonwealth need to offer in order to better serve students today and tomorrow.”

Beshear is ob a three-day tour of the state with Education Commissioner Dr. Terry Holliday and his Secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, Helen Mountjoy. He and Holliday have said they want to gauge the public’s concerns about education and what the next steps in reform should be.

Beshear named state legislators, school officials, education advocates and business leaders to the “Transforming Education in Kentucky,” and said he will ask Republican Senate President David Williams to add two senators to the group.

Williams responded by naming Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, and Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs, to the task force, but he also expressed reservations about the idea in a letter to the governor.

“I respectfully submit that it is past time for your administration to move beyond discussion and to immediate action,” Williams said in his letter. “All of the topics you mentioned as a focus of the task force are not only under the rubric of current legislative committees but also have been the subject of legislative bills.”

He then went on to list a number of bills from past legislative sessions which he said addressed most or all of the areas Beshear wants to explore.

Beshear said the task force will look at efforts already under way, such as the Common Core Standards Initiative, Graduate Kentucky, the Gates Foundation/SREB college and career readiness initiative, the Race to the Top competition and the Governor’s Task Force on Early Childhood Development and Education. Against this backdrop of renewed energy and activity, the panel will recommend ways to channel all of these efforts into an integrated and comprehensive system of education in Kentucky.

The task force will address career and technical education, expanded use of technology for learning, increased opportunities for students to earn college credit in high school and other issues that affect student success, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

Williams’ letter cited bills – some of which passed like this year’s Senate Bill 1, others of which did not – which he said addressed each of those concerns.

“In conclusion,” Williams wrote Beshear, “the topics you are advancing are already under discussion or are the subjects of concrete action.”

Beshear said during his 2007 gubernatorial campaign that KERA, the landmark 1990 education reform, had served Kentucky well for 20 years but called for a “top to bottom” review of the law to determine what parts work well and which should be revised or changed. Recently, Beshear has said he wants to take education reform “to the next level.”

“Our world has changed dramatically since the reforms of 1990,” said Gov. Beshear. “We must now turn our focus to the future and again to our schools to ensure that our strategies and programs are designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

The goal of the task force is to formulate recommendations by the end of 2010, for consideration during the 2011 legislative session.

Beshear and Holliday will co-chair the task force. In addition to Winters and Westwood, the other members are Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville; Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville; Rep. Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown; Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway; Mountjoy; David Adkisson, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; Sheldon Berman, Jefferson County Superintendent; Mary Ann Blankenship, executive Director of the Kentucky Education Association; Margaret Cleveland, Woodford County school board member; Sam Corbett, Prichard Committee; Bend Cundiff, Cundiff Farms in Cadiz; Sharon Darling, National Center for Family Literacy; Betty Griffin, of the Griffin Group of Frankfort; Tim Hanner, Kenton County Superintendent; Trichel House, Russell school teacher; Nannette Johnston, Hardin County Superintendent; Eleanor Jordon, Kentucky Commission on Women; Robert King, President of the Council on Postsecondary Education; Nana Lampton, American Life and Accident Insurance; William Lovell, McLean County board member; Brent McKim, Jefferson County Teachers Association; Bob Porter, Paintsville Mayor; Johnna Reeder, Duke Energy; Stu Silberman, Fayette County Superintendent; Stephen Trimble, Johnson County Superintendent; and Dian Whalen, Florence Mayor.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.