By Linda Blackford | Editor
Good morning!
The company planning to build a hyperscale data center in Hancock County says it wants to play the rules and build community engagement. Not everyone is convinced.
In more national news, we’re running a cautionary tale out of Wisconsin about tuition vouchers, part of the school choice movement that Kentucky rejected in 2024. Turns out that if you give people a lot of public money to run a private school, they aren’t really accountable to anyone.
And we’ve heard a lot of concerns about Flock cameras from folks in Lexington and Louisville. It turns out people all over the country are worried, and lawmakers are pushing back.
And in Commentary, Brigitte Blom says Kentucky is on its way to a second round of education reform.
Century Aluminum is selling its idled Hawesville smelter in Western Kentucky to a data center company after choosing Oklahoma as the site for a new smelter, the first built in the U.S. since 1980. (Century Aluminum photo)
By Liam Niemeyer
An investor-owned developer looking to build a hyperscale data center at an idled Hancock County aluminum smelter says it’s committing to the governor’s requirements to pay its share of taxes, follow environmental laws and “build a meaningful relationship” with the community.
Private tuition vouchers provide taxpayer dollars to private schools without much accountability. (Getty Images)
By Megan O’Matz
This story first appeared in ProPublica.
At some point, my reporting colleagues and I began referring to them as the “100% schools.”
We were following the money that flows from states’ public coffers into private schools through vouchers when we noticed a subset of educational facilities where tax dollars cover all or a big part of the tuition for every student.
Flock Safety license plate readers are typically mounted on tall poles, with a camera and solar panel on top. The company says its technology is used in more than 6,000 communities across 49 states in partnership with thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide. (Photo courtesy of Flock Safety)
By Amanda Watford
Flock Safety is tightening privacy and oversight controls for its nationwide network of automated license plate readers as more communities pull back from the technology and lawmakers across the political spectrum push for new restrictions.
Kentucky’s education reform movement is continuing to grow, says Brigitte Blom. (Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By Brigitte Blom
In the 1990’s, Kentucky set the pace for the nation in improving education outcomes.
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