Ten Reasons Why Kentucky Children Deserve School Choice

1. Spending has increased dramatically with little measurable increase in performance.

2. Recent data provided to the US Government shows Kentucky’s high school graduation rate is 1.5 percent lower now than just before KERA was enacted.

3. CATS testing, used to report No Child Left Behind (NCLB) scores, is inflated to misleading levels. Scores inflate even more when CATS is “revised” in 2006-07.

4. The proportion of students in Kentucky’s private schools has grown faster than anywhere else in the US.

5. Kentucky public schools are failing to prepare students for college — more than half require remedial courses to catch up.

6. KERA reforms yield higher youth unemployment rates compared to Kentucky’s surrounding states. The 2004 difference is the widest in the last 17 years.

7. Kentucky’s scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test compared to those for neighboring states are much worse now than when KERA began.

8. Since 1999, Kentucky has ranked last in the nation when the ratio of teachers is compared to total school staff.

9. Across the United States, more parents opt for school choice programs every year.

10. Kentucky public schools continue to show substantial racial gaps in learning.