A Softball for Dan Kelly

I tossed Senator Dan Kelly "a softball" last night.

I asked him if he thought the CATS Task Force was a waste of time.

I thought he'd say, "Yes."

But he didn't.

I did not record a direct quote, but Kelly said he was satisfied with the group, they did some good, and that he benefited from the exchange.

Of course, all the while, Kelly has been recrafting the former Senate Bill 1 for another run during the 2009 session.

It's increasingly hard to ignore the eroding popularity of the CATS assessment among educators. Put to a public vote, I doubt it would pass either. But this is not an issue the public will vote on. The new Senate Bill 1 (or whatever number it carries) will surely sail through the Senate.

Will it take another dirt nap in Moberley's committee in the House?

Whether the CATS Task Force was successful or not, I'll leave to others. My thought is that the task force wasn't where the real action was going to take place on this issue in any case.

But I'd like to thank both of these warriors.

Like Harry Moberley before him , Kelly was gracious enough to host my doctoral students for a three-hour discussion on Kentucky politics, testing, the budget, and more.

To my surprise, Kelly still wanted to talk about the 2005 Dana Suem Stevenson case and accepted my challenge to debate. (I'm not an attorney, but had studied the case and wrote a piece for H-L in 2005.) He argued the case made by Paul Salamanca and James Keller in the Kentucky Law Review. I argued the Supreme Court's position.

Thanks to both legislators for unselfishly giving their time to our students - at the end of a long day and before a long drive home.