Kentucky Education Reform Act Gone Amok...Again

The intersection of the Kentucky Education reform Act of 1990 with some of the consequent stupidity it entailed can be seen in the recent firing of the most successful public-school basketball coach in Lexington. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader of 06 June, Champ Ligon, coach of the boys basketball team at Bryan Station High School during the last five years said he was informed a couple days before by school principal Gladys Peoples that he was not to be rehired, another way of indicating that he was fired, since teachers/coaches sign contracts.

This is what Ligon said, "(Peoples) told me I had done a great job bringing the program back to a high level, but she felt it was time to give somebody else a chance to take it to an even higher level." The problem with that statement lies in the fact that Ligon's teams have won more games in the last three years than any other Fayette-system high school. The records, respectively, are 20-8; 20-10; and 24-8. In fact, he took a team that had won only two games the year before he took the job and in two years managed to compile this 3-year record. Especially considering the fact that at one time during the season Bryan Station was rated second in the state, one wonders to what level Ms. Peoples wanted the team to aspire. It's already at the top, obviously, unless Peoples thinks it is allowed to play on the college level.

Now to the connection with the Education Reform Act! Where is Fayette school superintendent Stu Silberman in all of this? He's paid about a quarter of a million a year to see to things such as personnel…or is he? According to KERA, the school-based council (principal, three teachers, two parents) can hire and fire its principal, so it certainly can hire and fire its coach. The Bryan Station council was not mentioned in the H-L article, nor was Mr. Silberman. Indeed, a ruling came down to the Fayette system from the Kentucky Supreme Court a few years ago stating flatly that, pursuant to KERA, the elected system superintendent had no say in the hiring of a principal, nor does the elected board of education. Much of KERA has been rescinded, but the school-based council provision, by far the worst aspect of the statute, is still in place.

Ms. Peoples apparently has not commented other than in the way Ligon explained. If she has a genuine reason, she should explain. Is moral turpitude, for instance, involved? Ligon said he was shocked and that he expected to finish his career at Bryan Station, so he seems not to be afraid of any sort of scandal. His record, sports-wise, speaks for itself. Did Ms. Peoples act on her own, or did she have authority from her school council? She needs to explain this.

Is the element of race a factor? A look at a Web-site photograph taken of the Bryan Station team at its banquet earlier this year reveals that the team (at least the ten players in the picture) is made up of virtually all African Americans, but Ligon is white. The school has a large African-American population. Is Peoples playing the race card? Does she have a friend or acquaintance she wants to have the job? Does she have any other incentive for doing what is obviously off-the-wall, by any standard? There has to be a better reason than "getting someone to take the team to a higher level." She needs to level with the public.

This is not to say Peoples doesn't have a valid reason for her action. It is to say that – unless she knows absolutely nothing about basketball – the reason Ligon said she gave doesn't signify. The end of this episode is not in sight, but it serves as another wake-up call on the damage KERA has done to Kentucky education.

And so it goes.

Jim Clark