Then there were only 7 states without charter schools

Kentucky’s still part of a vanishing breed

Alabama just became the 43rd state with a charter school law.

Meanwhile, here in Kentucky some union-backing House legislators vainly continue to try to make the traditional public school system work for disadvantaged kids with essentially nothing more than traditional ideas. After nearly 25 years of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA), that has to be one of the slowest learning curves ever.

The lesson isn’t hard to understand. When you compare Kentucky’s results from the early 1990s to the present from the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress, proficiency rate achievement gaps in both math and reading are larger now than they were when KERA was just getting underway. Here's an eighth grade example you've seen before.

G8 NAEP Math P Rates for KY Whites and Blacks by Year

Never-the-less, some Kentuckians continue to ignore this 25-year long lesson with unpromising ideas that just try to fix the traditional public school system from within using tweaks not much different from what’s already been tried. Such approaches now have failed disadvantaged students in Kentucky for a quarter of a century.

It’s sad that some Kentuckians would serve adult interests first by forcing the state keep banging its head against the same old obstacles instead of finally realizing that it is past time to try other things. Those other things include real school choice options that are proving particularly helpful to the very same under-privileged kids that KERA left behind.

Want to fix the gaps? Give charter schools a try and allow under-performing kids more flexibility to go to another school that might better meet the student’s needs.

How about trying some innovative tax credit options, especially those that allow business and industry to help poor kids so even parents of modest means can better position their children for improved learning?

C'mon Kentucky! Alabama just figured this out and is now the 43rd state to enact charter school legislation. The Bluegrass State and especially its children are getting left behind.