+1
Everybody knows Kentuckians are mystical, good-looking, sweet as pie and handy with a shotgun. But could we stand a little more learnin? Yes, say Kentucky education officials, who launched www.KnowHow2GOKy.org, a campaign that is not about potty training but rather aims to help prepare high-school and middle-school kids for college. The website includes helpful advice like Put your hands on some cash, because, well, your government pretty much blew its wad on the website.
+2
But wait, theres more! Still high on their new-website fumes, education officials announced more bad news for Wal-Mart, Taco Bell and the Merchant Marines: Kentuckys high-school dropout rate is the lowest in a decade. Thirteen overachieving school districts had zero dropouts, which is the statewide goal for 2014.
+5
Betcha think there couldnt possibly be even more good education news, but friends, we musta died and gone to Connecticut! Jefferson County Public Schools approved its student assignment plan, one that promises to keep schools diverse and undo the damage of last years anti-desegregation Supreme Court ruling. The plan will use a mixture of race, income and education levels instead of race alone to assign students, beginning in fall 2009.
-3
We were on our way to a rare What a Week grand slam, but those killjoys at The Brookings Institution released a study showing that Louisville ranks fifth worst in the nation on carbon emissions, or what scientists refer to as the carbon assprint. Impossible, you say? What about Los Angeles? Houston? The study factored in population density, sprawl, coal/auto addiction, public transportation and pedestrian unfriendliness to conclude that we do, in fact, have the nations fifth-largest assprint.
World-classness: +5
This article appears in June 3, 2008.