The Chamber brand has never been stronger (and more important)

As the president of one of the larger "local" chambers of commerce in the state, I'm fortunate to be included as an ex-officio director of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. The state chamber celebrated the opening of its office expansion/renovation this week in Frankfort with its quarterly board meeting which included a teleconference with U.S. Chamber President Tom Donahue.

Under Donahue's leadership, the U.S. Chamber has become a pro-business juggernaut; it has been very successful in defending free enterprise and is a genuine thorn in the side of the Obama White House. The group spent more than $144 million on lobbying activities in 2009 and under its political director, Bill Miller, is becoming adept at grass-roots organizing around the U.S. Donahue left little doubt during his call on Wednesday that the U.S. Chamber plans to play a major role in working to elect pro-business candidates and defeat others this fall.

In Frankfort, Kentucky Chamber President Dave Adkisson has been very fittingly added to the U.S. Chamber's board of directors. Since returning to his native Kentucky in 2005, Adkisson has taken a sleepy state organization that was losing members at an alarming rate and turned it into a juggernaut of its own. The Chamber's "Leaky Bucket" campaign the past year shed light on the unsustainable growing expenditures on state employee pension and healthcare, corrections and Medicaid. It gained attention across Kentucky and, more importantly, with legislative leaders. Its work with metro chambers across the state also helped defeat House plans to tap business for enough funding the next two years to bond a new construction program. The Kentucky Chamber is also ramping up its PAC with plans to become more involved in legislative races.

Under Adkisson's charge, the state chamber has also forged a better relationship with local chambers. As a recent president of the statewide chamber executives group, I've seen this work firsthand and am helping to create a web-based system for allowing business leaders to convey their thoughts about important legislation to Frankfort leaders.

With the Obama regime talking job creation on one hand and cranking out policies on the other that will strangle job growth, now is the time for chambers of commerce to flex their muscle. Leaders like Donahue and Adkisson are leading the way.

Charter schools = competition

I've been someone who until recently thought the Daviess County and Owensboro school districts should strongly consider merging. During one of our Emerge Owensboro leadership classes last fall, however, a local school administrator made the point that there's a healthy "competition" between the districts that keeps both of them striving to do better. He went on to say that merging them would take away that incentive. I agree.

The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would bring charter schools to Kentucky. With the opposition of the KEA established, the House is not likely to approve the bill before the session ends on April 15th. The charter school issue went from nowhere to the front seat in recent weeks as Kentucky competed for--and lost--nationwide competition for federal Race to the Top funds. The state lost several points because charter schools are not currently allowed.

I'd like to see more discussion of charter schools in the legislature before they're approved because the issue is too important to not be thoroughly examined. That can come in a special session or during the 2011 General Assembly, but I believe more "competition" in public schools would be a good option. We're blessed in Owensboro-Daviess County and other areas of Kentucky to have good public schools, but education is too important to not always be looking for new and better ways.

Critics say charter schools are not always successful, but with many states having them, Kentucky is in good position to examine what works and what doesn't and design them accordingly. Kentucky's kids deserve no less.