All Entries in the "Education" Category

Feds deny request to delay new insurance rules to 2014

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Federal officials have denied Kentucky’s request to delay implementation of a portion of the federal health care overhaul bill until 2014.

But officials with the Department of Health and Human Services did allow Kentucky to delay full implementation of the provision that would require insurance companies to spend 80 percent of premiums on paying customers’ claims until 2012, according to letter the federal agency sent the state on Friday.

Kentucky plus 11 other states and Guam had asked federal authorities to delay implementing the requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The medical loss ratio was born out of concerns that insurance companies were spending too much on executive salaries, marketing and other overhead costs while at the same time raising premiums for customers. If an insurance company does not meet the 80 percent ratio it will be required to forfeit or repay its customers.

State auditor criticizes board that oversees for-profit education

By Cheryl Truman
ctruman@herald-leader.com

The board that regulates the state’s 122 for-profit colleges provides inadequate oversight, hasn’t had an outside financial audit in 10 years and lacks a clear understanding of its role, according to an audit released Wednesday by State Auditor Crit Luallen.

The Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education oversees the burgeoning field of for-profit colleges that enroll more than 19,000 students each year and specialize in educating them for specific careers. The institutions are known for their bold recruiting, including TV commercials featuring people who have gone from unemployment to middle-class lifestyles after completing career training with the colleges.

“Board leadership is fundamental in establishing the tone for its operations,” Luallen said. “When the leadership is lax and inconsistent, then the quality of the board’s oversight is diminished. It’s essential for the board to carry out its statutory duty to monitor these schools.”

The board is dominated by the same people who run the colleges. Six of its 11 seats are filled by representatives of the colleges themselves. The members of the board are appointed by the governor.

School dropout bill heads to state House floor for third time

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — For the third time in two years, the House Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday to raise Kentucky’s school dropout age from 16 to 18.

The House is expected to approve the bill Wednesday. But the bill’s sponsor said he doesn’t know if the Senate will let it die again, as it did in 2010 and during the regular 2011 legislative session that ended last week.

Gov. Steve Beshear put the dropout bill on the agenda for the special legislative session that began Monday, but Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said earlier this week there is no sentiment in the Senate to increase the dropout age.

“I don’t know what they’ll do,” said Rep. Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, said of the Senate. “It helps that it’s one of just two bills in the special session. That puts more emphasis on it. We have so many bills during the regular sessions, but this time they can spend the time to really break down the bill and study it.”

Stumbo: No spending cuts to education

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Thursday that the Democratic-controlled House would not support the Senate’s plan to make cuts to education, but left the door open for possible cuts to other parts of state government.

“We are not going to cut education,” Stumbo said. “Not when there is a viable alternative. And there is a viable alternative.”

Stumbo’s comments came a day after the Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of House Bill 305. That version calls for cuts across state government, including cuts to higher education and K-12 education, to plug a hole in the Medicaid budget.

Now the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate must hammer out an agreement in the waning days of the legislative session.

State Senate approves spending cuts despite protests from educators

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Ignoring the protests of some Kentucky educators, the Senate passed a measure late Wednesday that would cut spending across state government to shore up the state’s Medicaid budget.

The state Senate voted 24-12 to approve its own version of House Bill 305 after a more than hour-long debate. The move sets the stage for a high-stakes standoff between the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House during the waning days of the legislative session.

The Senate version of the bill includes a 0.525 percent spending cut in the first year and 2.26 percent cuts in the second year of the budget, which begins July 1. Postsecondary and K-12 education would not be cut in the first year but would face reductions in the second year. That cut would be about 1.3 percent for K-12 education.

The proposal would bring a $6.7 million cut to the University of Kentucky’s budget next year, the equivalent of an additional 3.5 percent tuition increase, said President Lee T. Todd, Jr.

“Cutting education, in my judgment, is not the path to prosperity or even real savings,” Todd said in a statement. “It would represent a step backward. We need to be moving forward as a state together.”

Superintendents would get larger say in principal hirings under proposal

By Jim Warren – jwarren@herald-leader.com

Kentucky school superintendents would be able to vote in the election of new principals under a bill endorsed Tuesday by the House Education Committee.

The proposal was approved as a committee substitute for Senate Bill 12. It now goes to the full House for a vote.

Superintendents across Kentucky have long complained that they have essentially no role in the selection of principals, a responsibility that state law basically leaves up to the site-based council at each school.

Senate Bill 12, which the Senate passed in early January, originally would have authorized superintendents to appoint principals after at least consulting with the site-based council. The new language approved by the House Education Committee would give superintendents a less direct role.

Bill aimed at bullying of gay students threatened by amendments

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that aims to better protect children from being bullied because of their sexual orientation, race or religion may not get another vote despite near unanimous approval from a House committee earlier this week.

Two Republican lawmakers have added three floor amendments to the bill, one of which would allow those with concealed weapons permits to carry guns at the state’s public universities and trade schools and keep those guns in their cars. Two other amendments would make clear that students who are stating their religious beliefs about gays and lesbians would not be punished for bullying.

“I’m favorably inclined toward the bill, but the amendments may cause it not to be considered,” said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg.

House Bill 370 passed the House Education Committee by a 21-1 vote on Tuesday after three students told the committee about harassment and bullying they had suffered because they were gay.

Beshear urges Senate to raise dropout age at rally

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – Gov. Steve Beshear plugged a proposal to raise the dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18 at a rally Thursday for Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol.

Speaking before about 1,200 people at the rally held behind the Capitol, Beshear said Kentuckians should urge their state senators to approve the bill to raise the dropout age from 16 to 17 by 2015 and to 18 by 2016 and set guidelines for alternative education programs.

The House approved the bill earlier this month.

Beshear said students who do not graduate from high school make on average $7,000 a year less than graduates and often need some form of public assistance or end up in jail.

Senate President David Williams, who would like to replace Beshear as governor, has said the Senate will look at the bill.

Beshear told reporters after his speech that it would be better if the legislature did not wait until the final days of the session to deal with substantive issues.

“Taxpayers watch these sessions going along and they see a lot of activity at the beginning and at the end, and in the middle they don’t see a lot going on,” he said. “I would like to see the work spread around more.”

Thursday is the 17th day of this year’s 30-day session. So far, no bill has been approved by both chambers.

–Jack Brammer

Proposal would mandate Pledge of Allegiance in Kentucky schools

By John Cheves and Jim Warren

FRANKFORT — All Kentucky schools would have to set aside time each day for students to face the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance under a bill backed by Republican senators.

Senate Bill 15, which sponsors call the Kentucky School Patriot Act, was filed last week and is scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Education Committee this week.

Students who don’t want to participate in the pledge “may quietly stand or remain seated but shall respect the rights of those pupils electing to participate,” according to the bill.

“I think it’s sort of important — and the earlier the age, the better — that (students) learn to respect the flag and the country that educates them,” said Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs, one of five sponsors. “And, hopefully, this respect will pass on to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, their schools and the teachers they’re listening to every day.”

At present, state law says schools “shall establish” a policy by which students “may participate” in the Pledge of Allegiance, but it does not specifically require the schools to set aside a period of time to do so. However, as a matter of practice, most schools do. The Kentucky Department of Education said Tuesday that it doesn’t monitor pledge participation, but most elementary schools offer the pledge at the start of the school day.

At least 170 of Kentucky’s 174 public school districts now have a policy on the pledge in place, according to the Kentucky School Boards Association. Brad Hughes, the association’s spokesman, said that 155 districts have a policy providing that each student shall be given the opportunity to begin the school day with the pledge to the flag.

Bill to tighten regulation of for-profit schools heads to House

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would end the for-profit education industry’s control of its own state regulation cleared the House Education Committee on Tuesday and is headed to the House floor.

The committee approved House Bill 125, aimed at restructuring the State Board for Proprietary Education, which regulates some for-profit schools. The bill also would move many of the state board’s responsibilities to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

The state board licenses about 120 for-profit schools offering two-year associate’s degrees, technical certificates or other diplomas in different career fields. Under the current law, six of the state board’s 11 seats are held by representatives of for-profit schools, appointed by the governor.

This presents a clear conflict of interest, said Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, the bill’s sponsor. Legislative hearings have uncovered student complaints about for-profit schools that the state board failed to address, including complaints about schools represented on the board, Meeks said.