Lobbyists do the thinking ...so we don't have to

Earlier this week a Herald-Leader news story reported a concern about Senate Bill 2.

Tucked deep in S.B. 2's 56 pages is a small paragraph that orders the Kentucky Department of Education to contract with an online test preparation company to help students prepare for the ACT.

Prepme Inc. is not specifically named as the company, but [Hunter] Bates' partner, John Y. Brown III, says he worked to get the wording included because he thinks statewide test preparation would help level the educational playing field, whether or not Prepme gets the statewide contract.

But that language and the bill's overall leaning toward a specific company still bother some legislators who question whether lobbyists and individual companies should have so much influence over education legislation, pushing the state into specific contracts with designated companies.

H-L smells politics.

This morning Herald-Leader opined,

...Last year, lobbyist Scott Crosbie, a political ally of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and other Republicans, helped push through a mandate that the state administer tests sold by ACT Inc. to all students in eighth, 10th and 11th grades...

...In 2006, Bates, a former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, got $2 million approved during closed budget negotiations for a computerized math remediation program called I Can Learn....

"...there's something disquieting about education policy midwifed by political lobbyists...

...With the public complaining that there's too much testing and vital state services begging for money, you have to wonder whether merit or politics is the driver.

It seems to me that this is a process issue.

Do we really want legislators making implementation level decisions?

Should the legislature tell the Health and Family Services Cabinet which medical supply company to contract with, or tell the Transportation Cabinet what grade of concrete to use?

I don't like earmarks, sweetheart deals, backroom politicking or hidden contracts (if that's really what this is). The loser is typically the taxpayer. There is a reason sweetheart deals are conducted quietly.

Despite any other consideration, this is bad process.

Lobbyists will always subordinate the needs of the Commonwealth to the needs of their clients. A better process would find Messrs. Cosby and Bates meeting in the open with education department officials, and assessment experts.

PHOTO: H-L's 2004 file photo by Ed Reinke for the Associated Press.