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For a former Baptist minister, Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s lack of conviction on issues during his tenure as Governor was disappointing. A good Baptist preacher knows how to hammer home a good fire and brimstone sermon to the congregation when the flock needs admonishing. Fletcher must have really preached some snoozer sermons in the pulpit.

Today, the Lexington-Herald Leader ran a story about the Fletcher campaign’s decision to make the anti-casino message the campaign’s main focus. Before the campaign Fletcher said he was neutral on the subject, but when campaign time rolled around his tune changed:

Even after laying out the best-case scenario for Fletcher, “we still couldn’t get over 44 percent,” said Marty Ryall, Fletcher’s campaign manager.

That was the hole from which the campaign started.

That poll also revealed that nearly every conventional campaign strategy for an incumbent — touting accomplishments, attacking the opponent or trying to re-inspire voters — wouldn’t be enough. As political experts have observed, Fletcher was irreparably harmed by fallout from the state hiring investigation.

What the Fletcher campaign did next was a bit unorthodox and more than a little controversial, especially among some of the governor’s staunchest allies. The strategy was to change the subject, specifically to the issue of casinos upon which Beshear proudly built his Democratic primary platform.

“If we could make it a referendum on casinos instead of a referendum on the governor, we might have a chance,” Ryall said. “We knew it was a long shot.”

 Perhaps the election would have turned out differently if Ernie Fletcher had taken more risks in office and had actually voiced some strong convictions, like any decent Baptist preacher does. But time and time again Fletcher refused to take a position on important matters. For example:

Beshear said he believes global warming is real and a problem that needs to be dealt with.

In an interview later, Fletcher refused to say if he believes “global warming exists.”

 I hope Fletcher doesn’t decide to go back to the pulpit after his job as Gov. ends.

The head of Kentucky’s Chamber of Commerce, Dave Adkisson, provides some rah-rah about Kentucky schools:

Our fourth and eighth graders are performing above the national average in science and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation’s report card. Education Week’s Quality Counts 2007 Achievement Index ranks Kentucky at 34th, and the Morgan Quitno 2006-07 Smartest State Index ranks Kentucky at 31st.

Interesting. I wrote just a few months ago …

• In 1992, only 23 percent of Kentucky’s public-school fourth graders rated “proficient” in reading. In 1998, this assessment showed Kentucky fourth-grade reading proficiency at 29 percent and, for the first time, tested eighth graders at 30-percent “proficient.”

• By 2005, proficiency rates in both grades stood at only 31 percent.

• Almost all of the gains came prior to 1998. Since then, Kentucky’s reading scores on this respected assessment flatlined in both the fourth and eighth grades.

Curiously, Kentucky’s own CATS assessments showed fourth-grade reading proficiency in 2005 at 68 percent, and 62 percent in seventh grade – the closest grade in which CATS tests reading.

How can CATS report twice the reading proficiency rates of the national assessment?

In mathematics, NAEP reported in 1992 that 13 percent of Kentucky fourth-grade public schoolchildren rated “proficient.” By 2005, the rate climbed to 26 percent. A similar change occurred in eighth grade.

Doubling the math-proficiency rates might seem impressive, but this amounts to a 1-percent gain per year. Even if this rate of progress continues, it would take more than two decades before half of Kentucky fourth-grade students ranked proficient in math. And as with reading, the rate of progress on NAEP math has slowed at eighth grade. Even reaching 50-percent proficiency likely will take decades.

These incremental rates of educational improvement seem out of whack with the massive new spending that accompanied the Kentucky Education Reform Act. So those expecting reform from within the Kentucky Department of Education best look elsewhere.

Mary Meehan writes in a letter to the Courier-Journal:

Burn books! This is what I heard the majority of voters say. It sickened me. Chris Thieneman has worked to vote this down for 30 days. He says he has won and will continue to try to come up with the money to build the new libraries.

But even if he comes up with the money to build the new libraries, will the money still be there 10 or 20 years from now when we need to update computers, buy books, fix roofs, plumbing or heating that goes bad? (Just like in our homes, things get old and need to be replaced or repaired.)

Saying YES to the libraries would have meant that we would have had the means to build the new facilities, purchase the new equipment, and over the years make any new purchases without asking the people for more new money.

The people who worked on this referendum did not come up with, or work on it, for 30 days. Many volunteers who really care about libraries, not just the people who work at the library, worked many hours to come up with the plan.

We have said NO to knowledge.

MARY E. MEEHAN

Louisville 40223

Darn it. If I’d known that people had worked so very hard to force this tax on every worker in Louisville, I really could’ve gotten behind it.

And I guess she’s right. It is a bit rude to ask for money to build stuff. Simply taking the needed money each payday seems far less intrusive.

I suppose it’s not difficult for some people to imagine a skinny middle schooler wearing tattered clothes sitting a vacant lot eating dirt because the people of Louisville voted against a permanent tax increase. The child, unable to conjugate sentences, will never know how the people of Louisville so disliked knowledge that they destroyed the city’s only opportunity to learn further.