My E-mail to Louisville's Archbishop Fabre and Assumption's President Over Their Support for Amendment 2

NOTE:  This e-mail was written after seeing an editorial by Louisville Archbishop Sheldon Fabre supporting Amendment 2, and comments made by Assumption President Mary Lang to an AHS graduate supporting Amendment 2 and attacking JCPS.   

Archbishop Fabre and Ms Lang,

As a Catholic, I know that education is an important part of our faith.  My father, wife, and much of my extended family are the product of Catholic Schools.  All received a great education and a mostly positive experience within the system.  I too received a great education.  Mine was in Oldham County Public Schools.  And that education was supplemented by mass at Immaculate Conception in LaGrange.  There I heard the call to love and serve the least fortunate among us in the Gospels and the words of clergy and those who did good work for the church around the globe.   

So as an educated person with the words of my faith embedded in my heart, I have to say that I’m pretty disgusted with the church’s support of Amendment 2, which includes Archbishop Fabre's editorial to the Courier Journal and the email that Ms. Lang made to Trisha Siegelstein that was excerpted in the Courier Journal.

I moved here in 1975 at the age of 4.  That’s a critical year in education in Jefferson County, as that’s when court ordered desegregation and busing began.   As I would hope you're both aware, busing here and elsewhere led to racial tension, violence, and lots of “white flight” from Jefferson County Public schools, leading to the growth of surrounding counties, as well as the growth of Catholic Schools in Louisville.

So my life and perceptions of Jefferson County Public Schools vs other public and private systems were informed by what happened that year.  In the surrounding counties and Catholic Schools, the word was out that JCPS was a terrible place to send your kid. They bussed your child miles away from home to schools that were inadequate and dangerous.  

It’s safe to say that those perceptions were a great marketing tool for the Archdiocese of Louisville and Catholic Schools.  At the high school level, the fundraising drives and money being poured in to build new stadiums, facilities, and the like is impressive, the alumni networks are strong, and the tendency for many of those alumni to look down their nose at public schools is ever present.

It is with that mindset that my wife and I went into determining the best path for my daughter’s education.  I dreaded the idea of JCPS for my daughter, but also knew that moving to Oldham County would impact our child care options, extend our commute, and uproot my daughter from friends from preschool and the neighborhood.  We also weren’t too crazy about sending our daughter to Catholic School.  The combination of high tuition prices, as well as the lingering distaste at how the Church as a whole handled the sexual abuse scandal weighed heavily upon us.  As children, both my wife and I were in parishes with priests who later were named in the scandal. The complete lack of transparency and accountability all the way to the top was abhorrent, and too little was done by the church long after it should have been addressed.

So we did our research and decided to try JCPS. There we found a school system that was not the terrible place that decades of outside commentary had mentioned. The busing of my youth had been replaced with a system of magnet schools that provided choice for children. My daughter was a budding artist, and in JCPS, we found resources that helped her develop her talent, and a wide array of caring and compassionate teachers and administrators. Additionally, my daughter was exposed to a far more diverse student body than my wife or I experienced in our own schools, which made her more compassionate and kind about the experiences of others. My daughter graduated from JCPS in 2020. Her art was nationally recognized in high school, she was a National Merit Finalist, and she received multiple scholarships that paid for her tuition, room, and board at the University of Kentucky. She graduated college with a 4.0 and enough money left over to pay for most of her graduate school. That was a result in no small part to the education she got from JCPS. In the 17 years since my daughter started in JCPS, I have been involved. I've volunteered, advocated for schools in Frankfort, provided criticism when necessary, and vounteered my services to help draft policies for the district. There is no doubt that there are issues within the system, but JCPS is not a "failure" as many school choice advocates like to proclaim.. It's a system trying to do its best despite what is happening within our communities. You cannot dispute that the challenges of homelessness, poverty, incarceration, addiction, crime, murder, and lack of parental involvement are all issues that the Catholic School system largely avoids while JCPS teachers and administrators must deal with them head on.

With that in mind, the following comment from Ms. Lang to Ms. Siegelstein struck a nerve.

While opposition to the amendment seems to center on funding loss to public schools and how it hurts the poor, I would ask that you consider the opposite.  The reality is those with means have choice when it comes to educating their children.  Unfortunately, poor families, who are typically minorities, do not. They are stuck in low performing schools with limited opportunities.

 

You may disagree, but there is no amount of money that will fix JCPS.  It’s a broken system which continuously struggles.  The recent bussing fiasco is a perfect example of how our school district continues to fail its families and its students.  It also brought disgrace to our city.   This has a negative effect on Louisville in the long run which in turn hurts business investment.  Businesses will go elsewhere if a city doesn’t have a strong public school system. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, Louisville will continue to lose out to other cities and struggle to attract new business investment unless we fix our broken public school system. 

Beyond the desire to market her school, what does Ms. Lang know about JCPS? The "bussing fiasco" was due in part to JCPS trying to offer choice to all of its students with its large transportation network. That's how my daughter and so many others were able to attend magnet schools. It afforded them opportunities they would not otherwise have had.. The lack of available drivers has been an issue state and nationwide, not just for JCPS.  This lack of drivers finally made it unsustainable, which JCPS tried to fix and ultimately failed. There was no "disgrace upon our city" because of it. The disgrace is that so many of our families don't have the money or access for transportation to the places they need to go, and that many of our residents don't have the flexibility to take and pick up their kids from school even if they did.  

But the real disgrace is Ms. Lang's statement about the poor and minorities. What exactly has the Archdiocese done to help poor and minority children with their education? I have watched as my wife's middle class friends struggle to pay tuition to Catholic schools because they embrace the marketing that JCPS is substandard. I've watched as the Archdiocese closed schools that served poor and minority communities years ago. I saw the Archdiocese close the school at my own church, Immaculate Conception, and then force that church to pay for the building of St Mary's Academy, which wasn't anywhere close to LaGrange. While LaGrange isn't extremely diverse or necessarily poor, it certainly has fewer resources than the Norton Commons/Prospect area. Any thought to taking some of that generous alumni giving to Catholic Schools and applying THAT MONEY to improving your numbers of poor and underserved children? 

JCPS is 36 percent Black, and 36 percent White. 65% of JCPS population is considered economically disadvantaged. By contrast, Assumption High School's NCES data for the 21/22 school year shows it has 2% Black enrollment, and 89% White enrollment. Any idea what the demographics are for the entire system? How many children in poverty are attending Catholic Schools for their K-12 experience?  

It confounds me that the Catholic Church I grew up in that preached charity and love for the less fortunate is using that same population to sell a vague promise that somehow they'll have new opportunities while making zero commitment to do so. Your commentary talks about how Amendment 2 will help this group but makes no mention as to how the Catholic Church will work to serve these communities that they've mostly abandoned. 

Nowhere in your commentary is a promise to make schools more affordable for the poor.  So what is your plan to do so? 

Nowhere in your commentary is a plan to increase capacity to enable more students to attend the school they choose. So what is your plan to do so? 

Unlike public schools, you have no mandated requirement to serve or keep all who apply. Will you make a commitment to do so regardless of race, color, creed, sexual identity, or ability to pay? 

Unlike public schools, you have no mandated commitment to transparency or data collection. Will you open your books, records, email accounts, policies, meetings, and other information for review by all? 

What are your plans for advocating for legislation to improve healthcare, homelessness, hunger, unnecessary incarceration, access to transportation, and other factors that make it harder for disadvantaged kids to learn and parents to stay involved?

JCPS is committing to building and improving schools in the West End of Louisville and has worked to provide transportation to choices for those students. Will the Archdiocese be stepping up to reopen the schools you closed and/or provide transportation to all who need it? 

The political donations for Amendment 2 are driven in large part by Catholic School alumni and supporters. Covington Catholic has seen over $800,000 donated to the cause by THREE(!) individuals tied to their schools. Charles Leis' Kentucky Education Freedom Fund kicked in an equivalent amount locally. If that much money can be burned up supporting this amendment, it doesn't seem like it's REALLY about educational opportunities for all as much as it is a further windfall for Catholic Schools. If you have vast sums of money to throw at ads and yard signs, as well as buildings and sporting facilities in your name, you can also use your money and influence to actually create opportunities for those students if you want. Given the arrogance expressed in attacking JCPS, does the leadership of these schools REALLY want to open their doors to the disadvantaged, or simply enjoy a windfall at their expense?

I've been an advocate for JCPS for close to 20 years.  I've been to numerous board meetings, spoken to numerous parents and teachers, and heard the stories first hand from teachers about what some of their students go through.  I've heard and seen the sacrifices teachers in our public schools make to help those kids.  I've heard their stories of how crime and violence impacts these kids.  

I've been following the "choice" discussion for nearly as long and have seen how advocates for choice with the loudest voices and most money are people who have been in private schools for generations or have deep ties to churches and private schools.   They talk a lot about helping out disadvantaged students, but they're always short on details about how these students will actually be helped, and short on plans for how their schools will commit to help them.   

I've also been to Frankfort and seen the terrible way in which our legislators treat poor people, minorities, and immigrants.  These same people who have your back on Amendment 2 have spread false attacks on diversity efforts in our schools, dehumanize immigrants and LGBTQ people, and have continuously voted against legislation and funding to help the poor.   Many take a dim view of faiths that aren't their own, including our shared Catholic faith.   I've seen the heinous attacks that many of these "choice" advocates throw at our teachers, as well as minority populations.  But I can't say I've never seen Catholic leadership take a real stand against these attacks.  And while Amendment 2 advocates keep saying "this just starts the conversation", we all know the political appetite behind this is for vouchers to benefit private schools.   

The reality of "choice" is that Catholic Schools, like all private schools have the actual choice, not parents or students.  You decide who gets in and can control who stays with tuition, rules, capacity limits, and decisions that often lack transparency or consistency.  And with that choice, I have little doubt that the Catholic School system will still work to maintain a level of exclusivity, especially at the high school level.   The high tuition and number of large donors with deep alumni network ties almost guarantees it.   And the schools that pop up to take advantage of state money will have far less accountability that our public schools currently have.  

I have little doubt that this e-mail will fall on deaf ears.  As seen with the student whose editorial was silenced at Trinity, and Assumption's closure of comments by alumni on their own support of Amendment 2, there is little interest in a discussion about the true merits and pitfalls of Amendment 2.   I just hope that you'll both admit that this isn't about helping the less fortunate, but rather keeping the gravy train rolling for Louisville's private schools.   It would be great if rather than work to take funding from public schools who are mandated to serve all children, you'd work to support them in word and deed in that task.

Sincerely,

Rob Mattheu

The Privatization of Education is Bad for Kentucky's Schools -- VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 2.

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 2.

Pretty much everyone I know in Kentucky has worked at or been educated at a public school. Kentucky had a constitutional protection of our public schools that will be an amendment on this year's ballot.

I suspect that you're going to see a lot of propaganda about "educational freedom" telling you that you should vote in favor of amendment 2.

But Amendment 2 is just simply the permission for legislators to make whatever law they want regarding how public funds can be spent on education. This means that if passed, the next legislative session will be full of bills meant to divert public funds to private schools, and if my discussions with prominent Republicans in the state are any guide, these schools will not be held to the same standards as our public schools.

Instead, they believe the "market" will decide.

This means private schools receiving money will not be required to do any of the following:

• Provide open records and hold open meetings. Consider that what we know about our public schools and the critical stories you see in the news are made possible because of these transparency laws. As we've seen with the Archdiocese of Louisville, the Southern Baptist Convention, and other institutions, transparency into corruption and abuse isn't a strong suit for private institutions.
• Do the same testing and provide the same demographic information that public schools must do. These same politicians love to use this data to attack public schools, but don't want it for private institutions. We will have no way of evaluating if this grand experiment does anything Republicans swear it will do. And their feigned concern about things like racial achievement gaps in our public schools will evaporate once vouchers are in place.
• Provide a slot for every child who needs one regardless of the faith or sexual identity of the child or family.
• Provide a slot for every child regardless of their ability to pay
• Provide for the needs of special needs students.(Yes, this is still an issue in public schools, but it won't be fixed by shifting funds elsewhere.)
• Provide transportation to the schools of choice. JCPS' much maligned transportation system was necessary to provide choice for everyone. If the resources aren't there now, they're not going to get better as more choices pop up.

And some other considerations:

• Money provided will not create equity for poor families, because private schools still will set their own tuition. In many states the money simply lessens the burden on wealthier families who already sends their kids to private schools while not providing enough for poorer kids to make up the difference. $9000 in voucher money toward a $15,000 education is great if you're already paying for private school. Not so great if you're poor and have to make up that $6000 difference.
• Public schools are the largest employer in most Kentucky Counties. And while teacher pay can always be better, it's often a better paying job than many others in a county, and it's usually better than pay at private schools. Shifting money away from public schools is going to hurt their bottom line.
• Republicans tend to paint a school failing as a sign of success for vouchers and the "free market". But schools are not like a local pizza place where you can easily move your business elsewhere. When a school closes, it often leaves a lot of students and their parents in a lurch, and sets up a situation where education continuity from one year to the next is put in jeopardy.
• There has been a great interest in allowing people to cross district borders. This can create some serious headaches for districts and constituents, including overcrowding potential and people paying taxes for students from other counties to attend their system.

We should be working to improve and assist our public schools, not making donations to private entities that are free from oversight or obligations that we have with our public schools.

I urge you to VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 2 this fall.

An Open Letter to the Board of Education Regarding Chris Kolb's Open Letter to Principals

To the board,

I've always been the first to say you don't have an easy job.  You take a lot of heat for what is essentially a volunteer position.  It is no secret that the supporters of JCPS are unhappy about the series of events from the past couple of years that lead us to removal of transportation options from several schools and undoubtedly will have some very ugly ripple effects for families and schools for several years to come.   

It is not your job to "run" the district.  That's what Dr. Pollio was selected to do, and it's what he is paid handsomely to do.  It is no doubt a tough job with lots of challenges from COVID and its aftermath to the driver shortages plaguing every school system.  

My hope was that as an "insider", Dr. Pollio could work to resolve the dysfunction within JCPS.  Unfortunately, as the recent internal audit has shown, that was not the case.  We hired a questionable contractor to "fix" transportation who made it worse.  We failed to engage key stakeholders.  And when it all came collapsing down, that leadership did little to improve its image in responding to the collapse.  

I understand having faith in Dr. Pollio.  In a sense, that's your job.  He's the administrator in charge of running the system.  You took his recommendations in good faith and I assume you also believed that key stakeholders were being involved in making the work toward a new transportation plan the best it could be.   And what we found out is that the dysfunction JCPS has been accused of all along is still there, and it helped lead us to failure.  The irony is that a system that is constantly under attack for being "top heavy", many of the problems stemmed from NOT having the right experts in place who could have managed this transition to a new transportation plan and start times effectively.   

When JCPS administrators came to you with feedback on new start times, your job should have been to listen and understand concerns.  I have no doubt that the administrators who came to you are frustrated. They hear the complaints from parents.  They too have to adjust their lives and the lives of their staff in response.   But realize that part of their frustration stems from a very real cultural problem that Dr. Pollio has not fixed. Everyone is angry.  And many people have reached the boiling point.  Maybe there are no solutions.  But at the very least you can validate to these principals that they are being heard and understood, even if you don't necessarily agree.  

Sadly, Dr. Kolb couldn't do that.  Instead he fired off a missive to principals that admonished them for being upset and making Dr. Pollio look bad.  The real problem seems to be that Dr. Kolb can't square his own tremendous ego with the fact that the superintendent he's backed has failed so miserably.  On numerous occasions Dr. Kolb has made this body look bad with comments on social media and verbal altercations at board meetings that show he's apparently not mature enough as a human being to suck up his own emotions and need to be right for the good of the body as a whole.   

It may be 100 percent true that we'd have been in the position we're in now had we taken different steps last year in adjusting routes and schedules.  But that does not excuse the numerous failures of leadership to listen and react in a timely fashion in a way that shows the constituents of JCPS that people are doing their level best and using their time, resources, and talent to their greatest effectiveness.  Everyone in the district is worn out.  And there are many valid concerns and lots of residual anger from a culture that has for years been known as one where it's dangerous to speak out and difficult to be heard.  It is completely unprofessional for Dr. Kolb to write a letter like this to staff and beyond the pale for Dr. Pollio to distribute it. 

From their actions It's clear that Dr. Kolb and Dr. Pollio are not up to the task of leading JCPS through what will be a rapidly evolving environment.  It may be best for them and for the children of Jefferson County to step aside and allow people to lead who will embrace the opportunities that the crisis they helped create presents.  Certainly capable leaders would have a thick enough skin to listen to the criticisms of their constituency without petty actions like Dr Kolb's letter.  

Sincerely,

Rob Mattheu

It's a Channel 98 Kentuckiana Severe Weather Alert Day

(Open on local news desk.  Anchor Edwina Teleprompter is at the desk.) 

Anchor: Welcome to the 5 O'Clock News.  Today's a WARP OMG Day.  We take it now to WIMP's chief meteorologist Chase Stormcloud on what to expect.  

Chase:  Thanks Edwina.   It is indeed an OMG day, and on our severity color scale, it's a pink and brown plaid, which is just a step away from olive drab houndstooth, so you know this one has the potential to be....

(dramatic pause)

rough.  

Looking at WARP's Triplecast Omega 3000 Radar, you can see right now....... looks great, right?  Not a cloud in the sky.  But stay with me.  Things are going to change rapidly.  How rapidly?  I'll tell you how in 10 minutes.  

(Clock spins off 10 minutes)

Anchor:  It's a WARP OMG Day, and Chase Stormcloud is here to tell you what you how this may impact your day. 

Chase: Yeah, Edwina, this one is a tough one.  You know, in my 25 years of forecasting weather, I've not seen such a difficult setup.   People on social media are asking me "Chase, is this going to be like Louisville's storms of 1974?"  No.  This is not going to be that.  

If we look at the Storm Prediction Center Map, you'll see they have a large section of our viewing area under a marginal risk.  I don't agree with that at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if they up that risk to a moderate, or Holy Sh(Bleep) later today.   I'll tell you why in 10 minutes.   

(Clock spins off 10 minutes)

Anchor:  It's a WARP OMG Day.  And here's Chase Stormcloud to tell us what to expect.  (Under breath) Or not.

Chase: Thanks Edwina.  It is indeed a WARP Weather OMG Day, and that means you need to be prepared.  Have your safe space in your storm bunker ready to go with fresh batteries, a year's supply of MREs, 10 cases of water, and a NOAA Weather Radio or the WARP Weather Alert App.  If you don't have the app, you can download it from the app stores for Android, Apple,  Blackberry, and Nokia flip phones.   It has all our forecasts, our fun weather facts, and my 38 step tutorial on how you too can do advanced weather modeling.  

We've been telling you about this storm system since last October and now it's here.  The computer models are all over the place on this one, which makes this difficult to predict.   Here's the WHAM Model, which shows a large fleet of Transformers coming down from space and destroying the Yum Center and the Louisville Falls Fountain.  I think that's an exaggeration.   

I think the REM and GFY models are more in line with what we'll get.  What are they saying?   I'll tell you about it in 10 minutes.  

(Clock spins off 10 minute)

Anchor: It's a WARP OMG Day and if you're hoping to find out why, so are we.  Here's Chase Stormcloud of the WARP Storm Supergroup to tell us... something

Chase:  Thanks Edwina.  As I told you earlier, the REM and GFY models are showing us a classic setup.  Let's take a look at our WARP Crystal Ball Futurecast to show you how this unfolds.   At 6 PM.... nothing.   But as we progress to 8 PM, you can see the alacrity of the storms at the 20,000 feet level is looking ominous.  We may see some feldspar supernova developing out of this gluten rich environment, and that's my main concern right now.  If that trend continues, it's quite possible that.... Well, I'll tell you more in 10 minutes.   

(Clock spins off 10 minutes.  Cut to Anchor with her head on the desk. She looks up and shakes her head.)

Anchor: It's a WARP Weather OMG day. Chase, can you tell us when it's going to be bad?  

Chase: Edwina, I just want everyone to know that when it does get bad, we'll be here with all 8 WARP Storm Supergroup meteorologists, including our newest forecaster, Sir Ian McSnowflake, who trained at Julliard, to give us the most dramatic readings of our doppler radar as storms rip through your neighborhood.   Remember that if you're away from your TV, you can always watch us on your WARP phone app, which is now available on your Smart Refrigerator.  

As I said earlier, this storm is really concerning.  If the high pressure from over Canada swoops down with enough force to hit the low pressure out of Hoboken, we could see some medium pressure from Salt Lake City completely get bypassed which is....... frankly...    alarming.    As I told you earlier, this isn't going to be like the 1974 tornados.  Frankly, it's looking more like the storms of May 7th, 1952 in Owen County, which I'm sure many of you remember.  And if you don't I'll share more about it in ten minutes.   

(Clock spins off 10 minutes.)

Anchor: It's a WARP Weather.... just forget it.  Chase?   

Chase:  Thanks, Edwina.   Earlier in the newscast I told you that these storms would be like the May 7th, 1952 storms in Owen County, which many of you remember.  Those supercells decimated Farmer N. D. Dell's cattle barn and took out three acres of trees.  We can expect more of the same from these storms that will hit later this evening.  I'll tell you more about them in 10 minutes.  

Anchor:  The 5 O'Clock news is over, Chase.   

Chase:  Oh.  Well, I'll tell you more at 11.   

Anchor: Won't it be too late then?  How about the Six O'Clock news?  

Chase: Well, we're prempting that for our WARP Storm Supergroup half hour special on that Owen County storm, including an interview with the step-granddaughter of the farmer and the last surviving cow from that day.  You won't want to miss it.  

Anchor:  But what about the storm and the WARP OMG Day?  

Chase:  Oh, we'll break into normal coverage as soon as the storm is within 75 miles of our extended viewing area.   Don't worry.  

Anchor:  I quit.  

NEVER LEAVE KENTUCKY!!!!!

During the confirmation discussion of Dr. Robbie Fletcher to the Kentucky Department of Education, the KSBA tweeted out something said by Kentucky's Max Wise.  

Sen. Max Wise says he's "very excited once again that we're bringing into this position someone that has been here within Kentucky has not traveled outside of Kentucky for education and that knows our Commonwealth well."

Max Wise hit upon something that some of my teachers at Oldham County tried to tell me when I left for Boston University, but I just wouldn't listen.  NEVER LEAVE KENTUCKY!

Truthfully, leaving Kentucky was probably the most traumatic experience of my life, ranking above the birth of my healthy daughter, but slightly below the horror of paying good money to see Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace.   

The things I experienced while at Boston University are not for the faint of heart.  I'll list them here, but I want to provide a trigger warning for people who are harmed by new experiences and encounters.   

As a student in Boston, I......

• Encountered vibrant student populations of every race and religion who unafraid to celebrate their own culture and heritage
• Realized that some of the jokes and stereotypes I thought were funny were actually racist to people who weren't afraid to call me out about them
• Lived in a coed dorm where I regularly stayed up all night having conversations with the opposite sex, LGBTQ people, and people who weren't straight white male Christians.   
• Had professors across the political spectrum who challenged us to think and speak up in class and defend our ideas and beliefs
• Got to see multiple art exhibits of different artists including an incredible Monet exhibit
• Saw the premiere of a Holocaust documentary with a panel that included Elie Wiesel
• Attended classes and lectures with filmmakers, producers, and screenwriters like Michael Wadleigh (Woodstock), William Friedkin (Exorcist, French Connection), Tony Bill (The Sting), Julius Epstein (Casablanca), Martha Coolidge (Real Genius, Valley Girl)
• Had the opportunity to meet or hear several celebrites speak in person, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Reed, Penn & Teller, writer Robert B. Parker, Rick Pitino (seriously), Mick Fleetwood, Don Novello (SNL), and more
• Saw an enormous section of the NAMES project AIDS quilt that forever changed my heart and the way I looked at the LGBTQ community
• Literally lived around the corner from a Planned Parenthood clinic and heard and saw the weekly protests whose obnoxiousness and cruelty forever set me against the anti-abortion crowd.  A year after I graduated, that clinic and one other would be shot up by a crazed anti-abortion fanatic, John Salvi. 
• Made several 16 MM films using professional equipment at various locations
• Watched an entire city take on an ugly citywide manhunt for every black man with a pulse after Chuck Stuart murdered his wife Carol Stuart and blamed a vaguely described black male for the crime.    
• Heard the first usage of the phrase Driving While Black when our Dean of Students described being stopped by cops after the Stuart murder.  He was only blocks from where he lived in wealthy Brookline, Massachusetts, but he was a black male in a wealthy white area.  He was the first person I ever heard talk about how black males learn early to do everything they can to avoid a confrontation of any sort during stops like this, even when they know they've done nothing wrong. 
• Got stopped by Boston Police in the middle of Boston's Combat Zone for going the wrong way down a one-way street while riding in my friend's 59 Buick.  Saw that two white knuckleheads will get a pass if they're in a cool car.   
• Was a participant in a very tense interfaith session on religious tolerance and diversity that included a Holocaust survivor when four students on my floor had some religious insensitivity escalate into an incident involving a swastika.  
• Went to church regularly at one of the many services offered at the chapel on campus.  
• Rode public transportation everywhere and saw the benefits of easy access to it. 
• Had access to multiple bookstores and record stores of enormous size and scope and fueled my love of reading
• Had access to the great Boston Public Library
• Made my first real trip to New York City and fell in love with Manhattan
• Fell in love for the first time
• Had my heart broken for the first time
• Watched a lot of college hockey
• Met a lot of people who had no interest in college basketball and thought March Madness was a sales event at Jordan's Furniture (it was a Boston staple.  Look it up.). 
• Wrote a 25 page paper on the classic sitcom tropes of the Golden Girls.  Don't judge me.  
• Read three newspapers a day (Boston Globe, USA Today, Wall Street Journal)
• Made memories and met friends that have lasted me a lifetime
• Learned how to live on my own and further develop thoughts and beliefs independent of my family and community 
• Think I came out a better and more understanding person than when I went in

Horrific, isn't it?  

The fact is that our lawmakers and far too many in our communities live in fear of outside influence and change.  The idea that we can learn and grow and become better people scares a lot of people for reasons that escape me.  Perhaps it's simply a few centuries of cultural inertia that sees change and outside influences as something to be afraid of, even when they're coming from people born and raised here.

Jason Glass committed the cardinal sin of putting out innocuous guidance on how best to handle LGBTQ kids.  None of that guidance was controversial or mandated how teachers should feel or behave. None of it told teachers to not involve parents.   It was level headed guidance based on opinions from medical, mental health, teaching, and legal professionals.  But because it came out under his watch, and our legislature was knee deep in their latest attempt to rile up division and hate in the name of votes, Jason Glass came under attack for this guidance.

I have never met Robbie Fletcher.  But I have met Max Wise and I've seen him in action.  

I watched how he joined his running mate Kelly Craft in attacking transgender youth.  I watched him help ram through Senate Bill 150 against sound medical and mental health advice while ignoring the voice of Kentucky students and their parents who were impacted by the bill.  I watched him use the ridiculous attacks of "woke" against anyone who dared express a desire to consider the wants and needs of the marginalized.  I saw Max's e-mails of support to the cruel hate group "Mom's For Liberty" after they attacked Max's colleague Karen Berg and her dead transgender son, Henry.  I saw Max Wise repeat stupid claims and make false accusations against Mr. Fletcher's predecessor.  

Max Wise is not a good person.  He's not an educated person who makes decisions based on reason, kindness, and the best interest of students.   He's a reactionary political tool.  

So when Robbie Fletcher says in response to Max Wise's tweet above that "Senator Wise has been a friend for some time now" and thanks him for his support, I can't help but wonder what that says about Dr. Fletcher.  Is his department of education going to be one that only supports the people that Max Wise and his colleagues consider Kentuckians?  Or is it one that will recognize the humanity and needs of all of its students regardless of their background?    

Maybe we'd all be better served if Kentucky's leaders actually experienced more than what happens in their own backyard.  At the very least I think we'd be kinder and more decent human beings.  I hope that Dr. Fletcher realizes that Max Wise is a friend to nobody, except those who serve his own political career.  And if it comes time for Max to turn on Fletcher or his department, he will do so in a New York Minute.  

My E-mail to The JCPS Board Regarding Their Decision To Remove Transportation to Most Magnets

Good morning,

Congratulations to four of you for accomplishing what so many in Louisville have wanted all along.   Neighborhood schools, segregation, and enough overall dysfunction being demonstrated by both the board and its administration to make pretty much everyone in the city and state want to have SOMETHING.... ANYTHING.... done. 

The board screwed up when you trusted Marty Pollio and his team that said we needed a ridiculously convoluted plan to fix transportation.   And I get it.  Maybe, like me, you thought his heart and head were in the right place.   But it should have been obvious from the first day that he was not up to the task, nor was his team.  

I'm honestly not sure if Alpharoute was hired to fix things, or simply share the blame for destroying them.   Because again, the people that have long sought to destroy what 1975 brought us are finally getting their wish.    

And after paying hundreds of thousands to Alpharoute, we hired another company to tell us how Alpharoute and JCPS screwed up.   They did, in ways that seemed to withstand scrutiny. 

So what did you do?  You tried to rush a vote.  You did so in a meeting where you didn't open an overflow room until the meeting was underway, and you left at least 100 people out in the rain.   You knew it would be controversial.  You didn't care.   But you did decide to table the vote for a bit after receiving the auditor's report and hearing the thoughts of the auditor.     

In that time, you would think that the district would be trying to figure out a plan B.   Or at least better justifying the fact that there were not better alternatives.   

Rather than wait for the next scheduled board meeting, you called one with 24 hours notice.   You provided no opportunity for speakers prior to the meeting. Again more people were left out in the rain.  I guess some of you were tired of hearing feedback when your mind was made up.   You went into another meeting where you were given three not great options.   And when you questioned those who brought the plan to you, you found out that as the auditors had told you, departments weren't coordinating on feedback for the new plan.    

In the meantime, the voices of the people who will be impacted most are ignored.   

You bought the transportation department less than a week.  You didn't demand accountability from Marty Pollio and the team that brought you this disaster.  You didn't demand a plan for the flaws found by the auditors.  You didn't demand an explanation for how this new plan will work.  

We have five months.  We had far longer than that previously, and still Pollio and his team blew everything up.  Ignoring the consequence to students, do you think that pulling transportation from magnets is NOT going to have a ripple effect on schools and transportation for next year?   Parents are going to be demanding answers, looking for transfers, and seeking to make major changes to their enrollment. The schools currently have no real idea how these changes will impact their enrollment, class sizes, car rider lines, bus crowding, and more.   Will staffing need to shift to accommodate more students at school X vs school Y?   Will teachers decide to quit, retire, or transfer?  Does anyone know?  Is there anything beyond an 8 page Powerpoint with a few sentences to provide a roadmap?   

Maybe you had no choice.  Maybe you're tired of hearing about it and want to move on.  But I would have hoped that getting played by the administration would have made all of you a little more angry and wanting accountability than you have been.  

Three of you made the right vote last night.  But all of you should have been publicly demanding more from a Superintendent who appears in every meeting like he's simply counting the days until you push him into retirement, and an administration that seems to be so overwhelmed by everything that's happened that nobody can coordinate a true crisis response that gets all the right people on board, despite having months to do so.   

You all have a tough job.  Certainly one tougher than the legislators who are now laughing about this have, and one with a hell of a lot more public input and accountability than true clowns like Jason Nemes, Lindsey Tichenor, Ken Fleming, and the other parade of JCPS critics in Frankfort.  But last night made all of us who believed in this board and this superintendent look like fools, and that same crowd in Frankfort is gleefully celebrating.   

Perhaps I should just be happy my family got what we wanted and let it go.   That's what everyone who voted for this seems to want out of the community.   Forgive me if it all makes me a little sick to my stomach.   

The man that you hired and gave a nice fat raise to failed you and this community.   His response was to pass the buck to others who clearly are exhausted and not up to the task.   

Last night you decided to approve that failure with your vote, conspicuously split by a clear racial divide that once again leaves black voices out in the cold.  The forces that have hated busing, desegregation, and a school system that makes it harder to sell real estate are celebrating today.    

Bravo.  

Rob Mattheu

Kentucky's Republican Legislators Put Their Own Political Virtue Signaling Over the Health and Well-being of Mothers

My father died in July of 2018.  He was my hero, my best friend, and the person I looked to for comfort, advice, and a bit of calm sanity in a world that offers too little of it.  

I'd give anything to have him back, but I appreciate the experience it gave me in understanding grief.  

What nobody tells you is how darkly awful and funny grief can be.  

I remember sitting in a funeral home only hours after my father died and the funeral home giving us a TV sales pitch for more lighthearted funeral options.  One of the vignettes was a man known for his BBQ sauce being celebrated with everyone getting a bottle of specially packaged sauce at the funeral.   As I watched this absurdity pass by, all I could think of was a slogan for the sauce, "There's a little bit of Fred in every bottle." 

What I learned in the days, months, and years following his death was that no two people grieve the same.   Some of us move on quickly, comforted by faith, a life well lived, and perhaps the knowledge our loved one is no longer suffering.  

Others take longer, processing a life without our loved one.  Perhaps we ponder things unsaid, the hole in our lives without them,  or simply the emotions that blindside us out of the blue.  

Or maybe we never fully get over it.  

Each of us handles grief in our own way based on our past, our beliefs, our mindset, the reactions of people in our lives, and the emotional and physical aspects of no longer having that person in our lives.  

Grief packages up the absurd, the mundane, and often the best and worst in people who the grieving person knows and interacts with.  

The best is on view in the people who show up that you never expect to see.  The people who you barely know that show up to offer you kindness.   The friends you haven't seen in years who drive long distances to spend five minutes to give you a hug.   The friends of your loved ones who give their own small and touching tributes.  They're the people who are there for your needs, not their own.  

Then there are the people who don't really know what to do, so they offer you empty platitudes that sound like comfort but really aren't.  "He's in a better place" may sound great, but the reality is that my dad is in an urn 1/30th the size he was when he was alive.  Both we and he would much rather he be here with us in the form we all loved and cherished.   Trust me when I say that no slogan or phrase on a plaque you buy online expresses sentiments deep enough to impact those who are grieving.  

And then there are the truly thoughtless.   The people who make your grief about them.  They are the ones who judge your grief and how you go about it.  They're the ones who assume that if you don't respond as they think you should then there must be something wrong with you.  They're the ones who come to you at your lowest point and manage to make you feel even lower.   We had a few of those, including a family friend of many years who turned a simple misunderstanding about a facebook post on my dad's death and turned it into a reason to berate my mom for my "unfriending" her.  (I'd never been her facebook friend to begin with.).  

Those are the people I think of when I look at Kentucky House members Nancy Tate, Kimberly Poore Moser, and Right to Life lobbyist Addia Wuchner when they bring forth legislation like House Bill 467, the ridiculously named "Love Them Both Act Part II Act".  

These individuals love to pretend that they're benevolent martyrs who only care about the lives of the unborn and their families.  But instead, they have a twisted devotion to the idea that every pregnancy is more sacred than the lives of everyone surrounding that pregnancy, even if the pregnancy is doomed to result in a child who does not survive birth.   

The Love Them Both Act Part II Act is meant to encourage parents of non-viable pregnancies to do what Nancy Tate and Addia Wuchner want them to do, which is carry those pregnancies to term.  

I am the proud father of a beautiful young daughter.  My wife and I were fortunate to have had a relatively smooth pregnancy and delivery and did not have to face the heartache and heartbreak of a non-viable pregnancy.   But I can tell you that the last thing I or my wife would have wanted if we'd faced that tragic outcome is someone like Nancy Tate or Addia Wuchner telling us the "best" way to deal with our grief would be to follow the path that makes THEM feel best.   If we'd have decided the best thing to do was to terminate the pregnancy immediately, a legislative mandate to try and dissuade us would do nothing but hurt us more.   

I completely agree that pregnant women and their families should receive every bit of support possible in that pregnancy, including mental health support should the pregnancy fail or turn out to be non-viable.  But the creators of this legislation are some of the most radical among anti-abortion forces, who feel that the mother's life and emotional well-being should NEVER be put first.  The primary sponsor, Nancy Tate, called a victim of sexual abuse "broken" for speaking out in support of the right of a rape victim to abort a pregnancy caused by that rape.   The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe there is no pregnancy at any stage that should be aborted, even if the child or mother will not survive.   These people are not above using shame, guilt, and pressure to force those who are hurting or grieving to do what THEY want, and not what best meets the individual needs of the mother and her family. 

Consider the comments of Kentucky Representative Ryan Dotson, who, in voting for this bill in committee, had this to say about his colleagues who walked out in protest of the intent of the bill.   

"I'd just like everyone to take notice.  My colleagues on the Democratic side all got up and left.  And that's an atrocity, because when it comes to these types of issues, this is very important, and I want folk to understand we're just protecting the life and health of these children."  

Ryan's so busy grandstanding his "pro-life" bonafides that he doesn't seem to realize the bill deals with pregnancies where the health and life of children is already doomed.   Is that the type of person you want "helping" women and their families through their grief?   

Being there for grieving people requires both sympathy and empathy, something Kentucky's Republican legislators are too often lacking.  Placing their own selfish belief that the fate of a nonviable fetus is more important than the complex feelings of the families wrestling with grief shows just how ghoulish they truly are.  In their desire to be "pro-life", they've abandoned their own humanity.  An act that says to "love them both" shows love for nobody but themselves and special interest groups.