"
Editor's Note
It has come to our attention that the majority of the op-ed "Everyone pays, few benefit from Newberry's education subsidy" printed in our last issue was not written by Ralph Brown. The letter was originally written by Doug Alexander for use by Bill Farmer's campaign prior to the mayoral primary in May and was submitted to Business Lexington without Alexander's knowledge or permission.
As a policy, Business Lexington does not endorse political candidates. Four weeks prior to our deadline for the October 20 issue, we invited both mayoral candidates to encourage their supporters to submit for our consideration op-eds related to any significant issues in the campaign. According to Brown, the copy in question, which was not previously published, was supplied to him by Teresa Isaac's campaign. The Isaac campaign said they were not aware that Alexander had written the letter, but refused to identify the individual who provided it to them.
We make our Parting Thoughts pages available for the expression of original ideas and dialogue from across the Lexington community. We find this apparent act of plagiarism inexcusable and regret that we and our readers were subjected to it.
-Tom Martin, Editor in chief
The December 16, 2005 edition of Business Lexington featured a cover story exploring the possibility of emulating the Kalamazoo Promise, an amazing privately funded scholarship program provided to high school graduates in Kalamazoo, Mich. Mayoral candidate Jim Newberry culled information from the article to develop a scaled-down proposal for a publicly funded version for Lexington and Central Kentucky and has included the plan as a plank in his campaign platform. Mayor Teresa Isaac has not embraced the concept as a part of her campaign for reelection. As a matter of policy, Business Lexington does not endorse political candidates or take positions on ballot issues. Instead, we provide interviews with the candidates and a point/counterpoint format for discussion and debate. We believe it is the responsibility of media to provide factual information for you to absorb and consider before entering the voting booth. This thought process could not be more crucial to the well being of our community and, we believe, is best served by providing you with salient arguments in support of and in opposition to various proposed issue solutions. In keeping with this policy, we present letters we have received which argue for and against the concept of city-funded post-secondary scholarships.
Looking at Jim Newberry's plan to subsidize a scholarship program with tax dollars is like looking at a used car from across the street - The closer you get to it, the less appealing it becomes.
Providing financial aid for students to encourage them to attend college and start their careers in Lexington is a worthy goal. Who doesn't want tuition support? However, is it worthy enough to ask taxpayers to fund another scholarship program in addition to the state and federal programs they are already paying for? I don't think so. Worthy enough to justify spending tax dollars to pay private college tuition at schools in other counties? Absolutely not.
The Newberry Plan is patterned after a Kalamazoo, Mich., program with a couple of very important differences. The Kalamazoo program is 100 percent privately funded and every high school graduate is eligible.
Newberry says he wants to raise private money to fund his program. The fact remains that he has repeatedly said whatever is not raised privately will come from taxpayers. How many donors do you think are ready to step up to fund another government program when the mayor has already committed public funds to the project?
And who will ultimately benefit? Only students interested in pursuing careers in math, science, engineering, technology or teaching in any of those areas, would be eligible. Newberry's own estimate is that it will apply to approximately 300 students out of each graduating class.
Imagine you are a Fayette County student who grows up dreaming of attending Eastern Kentucky University's law enforcement program and becoming a policeman. Or maybe you want to be a firefighter, or an English teacher, or an accountant. You won't qualify for Jim Newberry's tuition subsidy.
In 2005, 1,901 students graduated from the five Fayette County public high schools. Private schools do not release their graduation numbers, but Mr. Newberry would extend his generosity to those Fayette County graduates. Add another 245 students who received GEDs in 2005 and you easily have over 2,500 graduates - 2,200 of which are not eligible for Mr. Newberry's generosity with the tax dollars.
Look even more closely at Mr. Newberry's plan and you will find that not even all of the 300 designated graduates will qualify. For one thing, not every student is going to want to put themselves in the position of having to pass up a better job opportunity in another state because they have a post-graduation, four-year commitment to Lexington. Furthermore, students would be eligible for Mr. Newberry's subsidy only after all other financial aid considerations were taken into account, including the family contribution.
Nor has Mr. Newberry addressed the fact that someone is going to have to administer the program. Someone is going to have to evaluate and determine who among the select 300 actually qualifies. Someone is going to have to track students to make sure they enroll in a qualifying degree program. Someone is going to have to track their progress to make sure they stay in that program. Someone is going to have to track and enforce the requirement that the qualifying students in fact spend four years after graduation working in Lexington.
What if a student reneges on the commitment? Are taxpayers going to get their money back? Not well thought-through, Mr. Newberry.
Those are just a few of the myriad questions that will have to be addressed by some bureaucrat somewhere, working for taxpayers. As is usually the case with such programs, the cost of administering this monster will be more than the money that the students actually get.
I am sure there are better ways for the city to support students and schools, ways that don't take from everyone to give to a few.
And I believe there are better ways to build our city's economy than to ask taxpayers to fund what is fundamentally an elitist concept that designates certain careers as superior and more worthy than others.
My suggestion is this - before we voters buy this used car, let's make sure we take a good look under the hood.
Ralph Brown is a resident of Lexington.