Reform and Reaction Education Policy in Kentucky By Timothy Collins Copyright © 2017 By Timothy Collins Permission to download this e-book is granted for educational and nonprofit use only. Quotations shall be made with appropriate citation that includes credit to the author and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, Western Illinois University. Published by the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, Western Illinois University in cooperation with Then and Now Media, Bushnell, IL ISBN – 978-0-9977873-0-6 Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs Stipes Hall 518 Western Illinois University 1 University Circle Macomb, IL 61455-1390 www.iira.org Then and Now Media 976 Washington Blvd. Bushnell IL, 61422 www.thenandnowmedia.com Cover Photos “Colored School” at Anthoston, Henderson County, Kentucky, 1916. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ item/ncl2004004792/PP/ Beechwood School, Kenton County Kentucky, 1896. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry. com/~kykenton/beechwood.school.html Washington Junior High School at Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky, 1950s. http://www. topix.com/album/detail/paducah-ky/V627EME3GKF94BGN Table of Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements ix 1 Reform and Reaction: Fragmentation and Tarnished 1 Idylls 2 Reform Thwarted: The Trap of Tradition 13 3 Advent for Reform: Moving Toward a Minimum 30 Foundation 4 Reluctant Reform: A.B. ‘Happy” Chandler, 1955-1959 46 5 Dollars for Reform: Bert T. Combs, 1959-1963 55 6 Reform and Reluctant Liberalism: Edward T. Breathitt, 72 1963-1967 7 Reform and Nunn’s Nickle: Louie B. Nunn, 1967-1971 101 8 Child-focused Reform: Wendell H. Ford, 1971-1974 120 9 Reform and Falling Flat: Julian Carroll, 1974-1979 141 10 Silent Reformer: John Y. Brown, Jr. 1979-1983 171 11 Serious About Reform: Martha Lane Collins, 1983-1987 185 12 Reforming the Reform: Wallace G. Wilkinson, 1987-1991 212 13 Reform and Reaction: KERAs Legacy 241 Appendix 253 Bibliography 288 vii PREFACE Reform and Reaction is the second of two books on development in Kentucky, linking the mostly smooth evolution of economic development policy with the sometimes punctuated evolution of education policy from the 1950s to the early 1990s. (The first isSelling the State: Economic Development Policy in Kentucky, published in 2015.) The project began as part of my dissertation research in 1987-1988, and, in what is a typical working pattern for me, expanded exponentially into one of the largest dissertations ever to rest on the University of Kentucky Libraries shelves, three volumes running 1,100-plus pages. It has been more than 20 years since I finished the dissertation, but all of that effort has now been pared down to two thinner volumes, more tightly focused, but still following the original plan to study the trail of policies developed under nine governors from the 1950s to the 1990s. The interpretive method of an extended case study in two volumes emphasizes related historic themes in Kentucky’s political economy. It should help readers develop a deeper understanding of how one state adapted its education policies to the sweeping arc of national and global change over almost two generations. To the best of my knowledge, this is a unique study of state-level policies because it focuses on governors, their statements, and legislation while considering the constantly changing and increasingly competitive national and global capitalist sociocultural system. Compared with Selling the State, this book is perhaps less critical of Kentucky’s efforts to implement education reforms, probably out of empathy for the sorry state of Kentucky’s schools after World War II and likely reflecting a bias of the author that high-quality education is essential to maintaining an increasingly complex, rapidly changing world. Reform and Reaction does become critical when governors were reluctant in their approach to reforming the Commonwealth’s school system, supporting continued minimal and unequal funding, ignoring the need for higher learning standards, and avoiding reforms to clean up the often messy conditions of local governance. Their actions sometimes slowed the pace of improving schools and actually increased inequalities across a state whose leaders almost always said they wanted to escape the trap of historic uneven development with its entrenched poverty in some places. Like Selling the State, this book is based on hundreds and hundreds of pages of government documents, including governors’ speeches; publications from the legislature and state agencies; and newspaper reports and books. It is historic, shaped by a theoretical interpretation of how government leaders seek to unify, but sometimes end up dividing the body politic. Kentucky grappled with the problem of education for decades, driven partly by the recognition that the state was not up to snuff with others, especially as competition for new industries and jobs grew nationwide after World War II. The initial solution was based mainly on the belief that viii Preface increased education funding, with a program for some semblance of equality across districts, would improve school buildings and classroom teaching and therefore, student performance. It wasn’t quite that simple. Overall, funding tended to go up. Inequalities continued, and, from time to time, grew worse. Student performance did not improve. Meanwhile, the state took a reluctant stance toward improving local governance, doing as little as possible to curry the political backing of school board members. The most important part of the story is a well-known part of Kentucky’s recent history. The Commonwealth’s leaders, during the 1980s, opened the way for significant education reform. A coalition of for profit and nonprofit organizations, combined with the tenacity of then-Governor Martha Layne Collins, cooperative legislative leaders, and the decision of Toyota to locate a major manufacturing facility in the state, raised the consciousness of the Commonwealth’s leaders and citizens. It took a lawsuit from 66 poor urban and rural districts and a state Supreme Court Decision to reach the high point of reform, with passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in 1990. Given the convergence of forces, it is still amazing a generation later that Kentucky accomplished the task of reforming its schools, with good results for teaching and learning over the ensuing years and positive results for funding equality, at least in the immediate years after the reform. Reformers, unfortunately, could spend only so much time on the heights. The reaction was all but inevitable, given the forces of fragmentation that have pulled constantly at the Commonwealth since its earliest days. Even so, the impacts of KERA remain ongoing, and the state will never be the same. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing two books on Kentucky has taken more than 30 years, not quite half of my life. Had the books been my only project during the intervening years, maybe they would have been finished sooner. But now, I can say the writing and research have reached their fruition, just as semi-retirement and self employment have become a realities. My wife, Shannon L. Price, and my son, Daniel, have shared the joys and frustrations of this extended effort, and I am grateful. Final research and writing on this book happened as I ended up my years as assistant director for the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. I am thankful to Chris Merrett, director, for supporting my work on this book, as well as Selling the State: Economic Development Policy in Kentucky.; former assistant director Lori Sutton for helping to manage data; William Westerhold for helping with data; and retired assistant director Kristi Kupka for making sure my financial house was in order. Many thanks to Janet Marlette for helping with proof reading and final preparation of the manuscript for publication. Cornelia Flora of Iowa State University has been a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. The remaining acknowledgments are a blast from the past, with thanks to people who helped out, including my dissertation chair at the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Sociology, Lou Swanson, and committee members Dwight Billings, Jim Christenson, Pat Mooney, and Ann Tickamyer in sociology, Alan DeYoung in the College of Education, and Jerry Skees in agricultural economics. Others deserve mention, including: Al Fritsch of Appalachia—Science in the Public Interest, who funded a 1987 summer study of uneven development in Eastern Kentucky that became the basis for my dissertation; historian Thomas D. Clark; journalist John Ed Pearce; UK professors Howard Beers, Tom Ford, Eldon Smith, Merle Hackbart, Herb Reid, Ernie Yanarella, Malcolm Jewell, and Thomas Leinbaugh, all of whom helped me while I was trying to get a grip on Kentucky’s political economy; Ron Eller of the UK Appalachian Center, who supported work on earlier revisions, along with graduate students Eugene, McCann, Sarah Dewees, Stephen Hanna, and Boyd Shearer; Doc Cottle for data entry; Ginny Wilson, Donna Cantrell, and Dan Jackovich of the Legislative Research Commission; Ron Morgan and Fred Troutman of the Cabinet for Economic Development; Wendell McCourt of the Kentucky Department of Education; Carol Strauss, Roy Sigabus, and Lucinda Zoe of UK’s College of Business and Economics; Lowell Reese of Kentucky Roll Call; Tony Sholar of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; Deborah Dawahare of Wyatt, Tarrant and Combs; Russell Rutledge of the Transportation Cabinet; the incredibly helpful staff of the Kentucky State Archives and Library in Frankfort; Terry Birdwhistell and UK Library staff; Bill Bishop, Jack Brammer, and Jim Jordan, all of the Lexington Herald- Leader; and fellow UK students now scattered around the world. Final thanks to then State Rep. Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington, who obtained a press pass for me to witness the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act from the floor of the General Assembly in 1990. The disclaimer: I am responsible for any errors, real or imagined. ONE REFORM AND REACTION: FRAGMENTATION AND TARNISHED IDYLLS The process of establishing schools in this Commonwealth has been evolutionary.