For Immediate Release
February 12, 2003
Contact: Rusty Cheuvront or Terry Sebastian (502) 564-2611 

STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR PAUL E. PATTON REGARDING TEACHERS’ RALLY IN FRANKFORT

Our teachers are the heart and soul of our public schools and I am honored to support their request for more state funding for elementary and secondary education.  Collectively they have the most important job in Kentucky.  Our future is in their hands.  Kentucky cannot turn a deaf ear to their legitimate concerns. 

            I’m proud of what our teachers have accomplished since the Kentucky Education Reform Act was passed in 1990.  Twelve years ago we asked them to do the impossible and they responded. 

            By every statistical measure of student achievement, Kentucky schools are better – much better than they were in 1990. In the latest National Assessment of Education Progress tests, Kentucky students performed above the national average in math, science and language arts. 

            According to Education Week, the nation’s premier evaluator of student achievement and school quality, Kentucky has the nation’s second best standards and accountability program and Kentucky is also second best in the nation in improving teacher quality.  And yet our teachers work in schools where the school climate and total funding are below the national average.  Our teacher salaries have fallen from 27^th in the nation in 1992 to 34^th in 2002.  That is not the way to achieve long-term, sustained improvement in our public school system.  

            These are the reasons I support fully funding education at the level proposed in my budget and declare that any level lower than that will be a step backwards for Kentucky public schools. 

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