A board member of the Kentucky Charter School Association says poor parents in the Commonwealth are powerless to improve their children’s education under the current public school system.
Wayne Lewis is a professor at the University of Kentucky. He says under-performing schools are often located in distressed parts of the state and that’s not fair to families who can’t afford to move.
“If you are economically disadvantaged you go and live in a community because you can afford to live in that community, and more often than not, it is the situation that economically distressed communities are served by schools that are not the schools that we would want to send our children to. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a problem.” –Wayne Lewis
Lewis testified in Frankfort on Monday afternoon (September 9) before the Interim Joint Committee on Education.
He says ACT scores that determine the college or career readiness of Kentucky children point to the need for educational improvement in the Commonwealth. He says the tests measure aptitude in four areas, which include English, Social Sciences, Math and Biology.
Lewis says in 2012, only 17 percent of Kentucky children who took the test met the benchmark standards in all four categories.
