Kentucky’s Governor Wants Citizens to Get Less Educated

Ark Encounter sounds like a really good name for a videogame.

FYI, I am a Kentucky educator. I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as a Beshear supporter, but I’m glad he beat the Republican, David Williams, who was MUCH worse and would have probably started some Wisconsin-style confrontation with working people in Kentucky. Anyway, Beshear won “Educator of the Year” from the NEA for his staunch support of education in Kentucky – including a flat refusal to cut the state education budget in the face of rapidly declining revenues – so his cuts to higher education have been a surprise to all of us. It’s not like he campaigned on cutting education.

Oooooh….!  Man, gonna have that stuck in my head all day.

Can’t we just wall off/quarantine some of these states before the virus spreads? Ken Ham is a detriment to society.

I don’t agree with the money KY is spending on this, but I do actually think it will bring in revenue. Until you’ve spent some time with the Young Earth Creationists (YEC), you don’t really get a good grasp about how many of them there are, and how fanatical they are. Sure, you can read about it, but it just isn’t the same as going to a homeschool convention and seeing it for yourself. 

I always feel dirty when I leave the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. The YEC movement is huge, and I think it will bring a decent amount of money to KY.

My head hurts.

What you’re missing from your math is that the ark park will provide for education in both history and biology.  So no need to pay for teaching those in schools anymore.

Oh, and

 (And, just FYI, he’s a Democrat.)

So is Rep. Peter Palumbo of R.I.  Religious ass-hattery is non-partisan.

Further proof that the south was destined to lose the war.

Nothing like promoting stereotype to the rest of the country by making an already ignorant and hick state more so.

In Kentucky, there is little difference between Democrats and Republicans. Most of our Democrats are “Southern Democrats”, which is to say, they thump their Bibles a little less loudly than the Republicans. That said, Jamie Miller is absolutely right in that Beshear was a FAR better choice than Williams.

And if the Independent in the race had won… well, let’s just say his running mate would be our governor now, ’cause Galbraith kicked the bucket earlier this month.

As for the tax breaks, those won’t emerge until/unless the Ark Park actually opens. Since they’re still $20 mil short of their $24.5 mil goal, that’s not likely to happen any time soon. However, the $11 mil in road improvements better not be spent until the park is near-completion.

Like I said, I don’t think it’s a good thing, what KY is doing. I live here, and we fought this tooth and nail. I wasn’t really commenting on the “robbing Peter to pay Paul” concept, rather the park as a concept outside of other considerations.

“It’s possible the theme park could draw in customers and provide jobs for some people —”

As someone else wrote, most of the jobs being created would be seasonal and minimum wage, but I would also think the “park” would have some system in place for ensuring that the jobs went to like-minded people who shared the vision and ideas being presented in the park.  Once they get the tax break, is there any way to insure they will not discriminate based on religion?  I know there are legal routes one can take if they do, but that adds up to more money. 

Like any good dystopia the first step is always creating an ignorant and  uneducated mass that you can then fill, whats left of, their minds with trivial garbage and propaganda.

From the view of someone in power this is a really sound strategy. Once the masses are convinced they don’t need to think any more they’ll also forget thing like the constitution and human rights.
Your leaders may seem like idiots but they’ve don their homework on controlling people.
In a few generations there won’t be anyone left in America with the qualifications to join the ACLU or other thorns in the leaders sides.

My head hurts, too

This makes me upset as a Kentuckian who pays her fair share of taxes. The money could be used in a much better way. The roads are poor where I live, there are people who need help with food and heat during the winter, the schools could certainly use extra funding, etc.

I am also disappointed in some of my fellow atheist on this site who have made ignorant, prejudiced and cruel comments regarding those who live in the state.

I am concerned with the number of people here who cannot grasp the arithematic:
1. $50million cut from schools.
2. $54million tax-break granted to ark park.

If he did not cut from the schools AND he did not grant the tax-break AND he gave the resulting $54million to the schools, that’s $104million.

It’s true he still may have had to cut $50million from somewhere else. Regardless, the math is quite sound. 

Really? I don’t think this “virus” is limited to a particular state or set of states.

I’d love to see them build this replica ark the same way that Noah did: no power tools, no cross-cut saws or blades, raw trees (not lumber from the mill, and no fir, cedar, redwood, etc), no trucks to deliver materials, no computers, calculators, slide rules or paper plans, and just half a dozen people or so. Now, if they could build that ark under those conditions, that would be a miracle, hallelujah!

Hc Conn- as a Floridian, I share your frustration.  Whenever something ridiculous happens here, the resounding response seems to be, “That’s the South for you!”  But, especially this week, we should all remember that there is no state in the union that is immune to such religious atrocities… just ask our northern neighbors in Rhode Island.

and without millions of dollars of up front investment –or tax breaks –or government assistance!

Seems to me somebody doesn’t trust in their god’s omnipotence…

Frankly, I am appalled that they want to keep animals in the monstrosity– and I hope concerned citizens and animal rights groups protest. I cannot see how this is likely to work at all.  I’m sure they will need a lot more than 8 people (not to mention considerable education) just to keep most species alive.  I can’t imagine the poor elephants, gorillas, kangaroos, hippos, giraffes, pandas, etc.  etc. having to live on a wooden boat. 

This whole thing is just crazy.

The website http://arkencounter.com/ does not specify that live animals will be on exhibit inside the “ark.” It says there will be a petting zoo and an aviary nearby. Maybe they’ll have robotic dinosaurs inside, similar to the lunatic displays at the Creation Museum. 

So perhaps the Ark will be displayed as being in the early stages of loading the livestock. After all, it would make sense to put the roughly 700 known (so far) dinosaur species on board first, since they were so gigantic, and then give all 1,400 of them massive doses of Bronze Age tranquilizers to keep them from eating or just crushing those cute and tasty mammals.

I have read reports in the past correlating increases in religiosity with decreases in wealth.  Seems Steve Beshear may have read the same reports; by devaluing education he may be trying to reverse the decline in religious observance.

Disclaimer, this is personal speculation, far fetched at that, inspired by a recent viewing of Mel Gibson’s ‘Conspiracy Theory’ and a sugar induced hallucination brought on by too many Twizzlers in a single sitting.

I’m just waiting for the finished ark, so I can go there with a list of “all living creatures” and have someone show me how they were all supposed to have been on the ark together with 40 days worth of food for each.

I’m sure gawd put them into some “deep sleep” or something. Like he did with that Adam fella before removing his baculum.

Stay classy, FSq.

And the tax break is only if the company builds and runs and generates business that is taxed. The point is moot if it doesn’t happen (the park isn’t built), because it would not generate any taxes. So by stopping the thing from starting you are basically saying that “New business is not welcome in this state because our school taxes are being cut.” While PZ may be a good math teacher, he has no idea about economics.
Why on earth would they just add the money back to the schools when it is cut because there is no money? Why does PZ even include that in this article? Of course 50 plus 50 equals 100, but why only ask for 50? Why not ask for 150? Then you could say, “This park is costing us $200 million.” Since your 50 comes out of thin air anyways, why not make it 150 million. What he should be talking about is how much taxes is the Ark Encounter paying if they are going to get 43 million back? I am afraid he gives atheists a bad reputation for inane thinking and building straw men.

I thought an Arkin Counter was used to tabulate obscure actors.