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30 years after Rose, constant education reform churns on

Kentucky School Advocate
January 2019

By Eric Kennedy
KSBA Director of Governmental Relations

As we begin another annual regular session of the General Assembly, it seems as if we just ended the last session. Since we began holding sessions every year in 2001, it seems as if our state legislature has become a full-time body, which makes the advocacy work we all share much more critical. Yet again, because of the important role public education plays in our state and every local community, we expect that bills involving school boards, our students and our teachers, to be among the most prominent bills debated this session. Our work never ends.

Just as important as activity at the Capitol, we are also seeing a high level of reform activity at the Kentucky Department of Education and our state board of education, which is formulating not only new minimum graduation requirements but also proposed changes to our roughly 1-year-old accountability system.

In this atmosphere of swirling, all-encompassing reform discussions, I suggest that we all must pause briefly to reflect on past reforms and especially on the processes we have used to formulate and implement those reforms. This June will mark the 30th anniversary of the Kentucky Supreme Court decision in the Rose v. Council for Better Education case, which then led to the formulation and enactment of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990. Throughout the year, KSBA and our partner stakeholder groups will lead efforts to revisit the Rose opinion and reflect on where we were before that watershed moment and how far we have come since then.

I encourage each local school board member, superintendent, teacher, parent, legislator, state board member and all supporters of public education to take time to reread the Rose opinion and consider its meaning for us today. When the court handed down that landmark statement, defining what an efficient system of common schools means, it required us all to redouble our efforts to provide equitable access and opportunities to each and every child in our state to have an adequate education. Despite all the pendulum swings we have endured since that day, be it in theories, practices, accountability measurements, levels of funding and so on, this fundamental goal remains perhaps our one constant north star. It guides all our efforts, and our advocacy, still today.

So, as we begin a new year, and a new legislative session, let’s commit to redouble our efforts to educate each and every child that steps off a school bus and enters our doors. Let’s commit to renew our outreach efforts to gain and nurture the community support our students and teachers are depending on. And, as important as ever, let’s renew our advocacy efforts to explain our successes, challenges and needs to our partners in the General Assembly. Our students’ achievement depends on every one of us pulling collaboratively in the same direction, always for them.

#RoseAt30 #LoveKYPublicEducation