Standing up for better schools

Let me start with a link to our story about some troubling education statistics my friend Helen Carroll shared with a group of Northern Kentucky community leaders earlier this week.

The gist is this: Education has come a long way in Kentucky, but there is a long way to go. It's not just about buildings, teachers and school districts. It's also about parental leadership, community values and the importance attached to making sure our kids get a world-class education. We must go way beyond any self-satisfaction about how far we've come.

That's why plans are afoot for an "educational summit" in Northern Kentucky in late fall that will involve about 900 attendees to accept the challenge to be "education champions."

It's a stirring slogan, but obviously slogans aren't enough. If solutions were easy, everyone would be executing them across the country. The start, however, is to first acknowledge that the problem is real and big. Please read Helen's list. What jars you the most? The one that grabs me is that out of 100 ninth graders, only 15 will graduate from college.