S.D. Schools Chief Picked for Top Kentucky Post

Tom Boysen, outgoing schools superintendent for San Diego County, bolted into the front ranks of American education reform Friday when he was named Kentucky’s first commissioner of education.

Boysen, 50, will oversee a massive reform of Kentucky’s school system in taking on the newly created post. As the first appointed education commissioner, he will assume the powers now held by the Kentucky superintendent of public instruction, an elected position whose power was stripped away by the Kentucky Legislature last year because of its desire to have the state start from scratch in redesigning a school system.

“Boysen is just the right person for just the right job at just the right moment,” Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson said Friday in announcing the selection by a six-person commission. Boysen bested two other finalists out of 120 applicants for the position, which will pay $125,000 a year plus health, pension and travel benefits.

Boysen calls the post “a fantastic opportunity” to help shape national educational reforms, as the focus moves from quick fixes of the early- and mid-1980s of raising test scores and increasing instructional time to more fundamental changes in teaching styles and testing.

The Legislature last year overhauled the state’s entire school system after the state Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional because of a funding gulf between rich and poor school districts.

Rather than simply deal with financial issues, the Legislature changed the state’s educational philosophy and decided to push fundamental improvements in school performance.

Among the changes that Boysen will oversee are greater independence for local schools to make their own decisions; using local councils of teachers and parents; a $200-million effort to have one computer for every six students statewide; elimination of grade levels below the fourth grade to carry forth research that shows young students learn at different rates; authority to take over local districts doing a poor job; a ban on hiring relatives of school employees; a ban on political activity by school employees and a reorganization of the state education department to eliminate any job that Boysen believes is not needed.

Boysen announced in September his intention to leave the San Diego position, which he has held since 1987.

In his current position, Boysen has overseen educational and administrative programs for districts countywide, and in particular has pushed for stronger high-school writing programs and for newer ways to test students without traditional reliance on multiple-choice tests.

He has also made the county office a more visible player in regional and state educational reforms, although it has no schools under its direct supervision other than three juvenile court schools and several independent study programs.