Kentucky has finished the final version of a budget that increases the states main school funding by $189 million over the next two years. In the wake of Education Weeks “Quality Counts” report, it is indeed heartening to see the state legislators address Kentucky’s greatest shortfall in that evaluation: school funding. According to the report, in Kentucky only 7.1 percent of students in the state go to school in a district with spending at or above the national average.

Nationally, the number is 46 percent. While we are fully aware that throwing money in the general direction of a problem is no way to fix it, Kentucky has shown a commitment to innovation and implementation of proven methods to turn around our educational standards. This follows a simple principal we have here at Kloiber Foundation: show that you have a solid plan based in proven methods that address specific problems and that plan can then be funded.