‘You can feel the success, not just see it,’ Beshear says of Lexington college prep academy

Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday toured Lexington’s Carter G. Woodson High School, an all-male college prep school that is the first of its kind in the state, and said he would like to see more schools like it in Kentucky.

Over 300 students are in the school, and Jefferson County has opened a similar academy, the school’s founder Roszalyn Akins said. “It’s good to be the lead dog and everybody else follows behind.”

“Carter G. Woodson shows us that while there are areas that need to be improved in our public schools, the innovation to do so can and should happen in those public schools,” said Beshear, who this week submitted what he called his Education First Budget.

“My hope is that we can see more schools just like this across Kentucky. Preparing our young men for the economy of the future is really exciting and innovative. Here what we see is a new a model and you can feel the success, not just see it.”

Woodson student Jarvis Byrd said he thought it was great that Beshear “showed that he actually cared about us.”

“For the first time in over 14 years, we do not have to make cuts in our general fund,” Beshear said, referring to the recent budget that he unveiled. “Those 14 years have been painful. “

He said a starting point was public education. Beshear said Kentucky had to invest in its teachers. The budget provides for a $2,000 across the board raise to all Kentucky teachers. There is an increase in SEEK dollars, the main school funding formula, he said.

“We know across the Commonwealth, we have kids learning from textbooks held together by duct tape, that we have classrooms that don’t have the technology we need to compete, not just with Indiana but with India and around the world. We restored funding in this budget for both textbooks and technology and we hope to be able to do more the next time.” Beshear said.

He said Kentucky had a teacher loan forgiveness program and every school district in Kentucky will have a clean, green school bus.

Beshear said he came up short in funding full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, but made a start. He put aside $10 million to help with early learning in disadvantaged communities.

Beshear said there is apparently going to be legislation introduced that would change the governor’s power as it relates to the Kentucky Board of Education. Beshear reorganized the board as one of his first acts as governor.

“I made a promise on the campaign trail very early that I believe that we had a state board of education that was not committed to public education, that was more committed to private companies trying to profit from public education. I made a vow that I would recreate that board on day one,” said Beshear.

Beshear said he would talk to legislators about the pending bill but he will always have a state board of education committed to public education and “not those who try to profit from it.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 6:34 PM.