Changing the culture in Kentucky isn’t easy

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March 7, 2010

By RONNIE ELLIS CNHI The Glasgow Daily Times Sun Mar 07, 2010, 03:53 AM CST

FRANKFORT — During a debate in the House Thursday on a bill to raise the drop-out age to 18, the bill’s sponsor, Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, said, “We need to change Kentucky’s culture.”

Greer meant changing a traditional attitude of rural, agrarian culture that expected young men especially to enter the workforce early and placed little importance on education. He’s right. But maybe it is time to change the larger political and social culture of Kentucky.

Kentuckians are notoriously proud people. We deeply resent the images and perceptions others seem to have of us as uneducated and unsophisticated. But we do little to counter those perceptions.

The very same day Greer asked colleagues to pass the “graduation bill,” Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, implored them to do something to keep Kentucky from “breaking apart.” Wayne ticked off a litany of quality-of-life rankings for Kentucky: 25 percent of her children living in poverty; per capita income among the bottom five states in the country; top five in poverty; the lowest rate of bachelor’s degrees; but No. 1 in heart disease and cancer rates; the highest incarceration rate.

Wayne wants tax reform in order to do two things: make the system fairer in his opinion by shifting more of the burden up the income scale and bring in enough money to address some of those low rankings. You can question whether his method is the right course, but it’s hard to argue with his goal to change Kentucky’s culture and make the lives of its citizens better. His passion-filled speech was filled with facts. But when he sat down, one person clapped – once, timidly. The attitude of the rest of the House was let’s get on with the business at hand.

The business at hand was a revenue measure to fund the House version of the state’s two-year budget. Rep. Danny Ford, R-Mt. Vernon, pointed out the House voted on the measure with little idea where the money will be spent. The spending portion of the plan comes up next week. But odds are the House budget will spend much of the money on capital projects in members’ districts during an election year – while reducing funding for higher education and cutting school days. (The House budget won’t fly in the Senate, but that’s not to say the upper chamber will alter it in ways to address any of those rankings Wayne reeled off.)

The good news of the day was Kentucky made the list of state finalists competing for “Race to the Top” federal grants to improve education. But at the same time, Kentucky continued to make other news that reinforces others’ stereotypes of Kentucky. Cockfighting thrives and lawmakers not only laugh it off but defend it. The state’s broke, we’re in debt, we’re cutting services, but we’re going to borrow more money to build vote-attracting projects back home. We’ll just call it a “jobs creation bill.”

Bid-rigging headlines have been succeeded by headlines about vote buying. Wayne told a legislative body enthralled by coal that Kentucky’s air quality ranks in the bottom 10 percent in the nation. Unemployment in Kentucky nears 11 percent. We argue over taking two days from the school calendar to save money but lawmakers are certain to let schools write off several days because of snow and flu.

Should it make it through the Senate (an uncertain prospect), Greer’s bill will be a start. But there’s still a long way to go to change the culture in Kentucky – and in Frankfort.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. He may be contacted by email at rellis(at)cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.

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