On Kentucky Tonight Monday, two lawmakers and advocates for and against raising the compulsory school attendance age in the state from 16 to 18 met to discuss the issue.
This is one priority that Governor Steve Beshear says is at the top of his list for the 2013 session of the General Assembly, which begins next week.
Advocates for raising the age to 18 were Rep. Carl Rollins, chair of the House Education Committee and Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. They list a litany of reasons why Kentucky needs to join about 20 other states who have raised the drop out age to 18: social implications, drop outs are more likely to receive public assistance than high school graduates, and a study which reports that 82 % of American prisoners are high school drop outs.
Opponents of the measure, like Sen. Mike Wilson, chair of the Senate Education Committee and Richard Innes, education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, report raising the age might be costly to the school districts. They also point out that evidence is not conclusive that raising the age to 18 is the way to address a multifaceted and complex school dilemma.
All of the panelists did agree the Kentucky school system has to do something to keep more kids in school; we’re losing approximately 6,000 to 7,000 kids a year by dropping out.
Innes did some additional homework on a couple of points that were brought up on the show.
His comments can be seen on his blog.
You can watch the entire hour discussion, including a number of good phone calls and Web form messages.
Monday night, Feb. 4, our topic on “Kentucky Tonight” will be hemp. Should the state have a law which legalizes the production of industrialized hemp?
Join us at 8/7 C for that discussion.
WinterPledge and Al Smith
Monday, November 28th, 2011At KET, we’re off and running with our winter pledge drive which runs through December 4th.
There are a lot of tremendous programs to watch all week. To help us continue bringing you the best in entertainment, education, and public affairs programs all year long, we also hope you’ll take a little time to invest in KET with your financial support. This week you can watch for a tribute to the Beatles, Riverdance, new Celtic Woman, and much more.
Personally, I think one of our best gifts to you will be an opportunity to spend an evening with our old KET friend Al Smith and his new memoir, Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism. Al, the decades-long host of Comment on Kentucky, will sit down with me for a special taping of One to One and you can be a part of the audience. All week, you’ll be given a chance to call or email KET and receive a ticket to the taping of the show on January 12th and a copy of Al’s book. Al will talk—a lot—about his book and his life and you’ll get a chance to have him autograph your book, too. And, we’ll have a reception before the taping where ticket holders, Al, and I will mix and mingle.
This has been quite a year for KET and the public affairs department with the election, candidate forums, conversations with the Kentucky congressional delegation, and more. We want to thank you for your support.
Let us know if you want us to continue this kind of journalism next year. There’s no better way to do that than to call in and reserve a seat for the taping on One to One with Al. I guarantee it’ll be fun and informative! I hope to hear from you this week and see you in January.