Tomorrow the much-awaited TEK – Transforming Education in Kentucky – Talk is set to take place around the state. And there’s been quite a bit of media chatter. There’s also been some talk about how the discussion(s) is a self-promotional tour for the governor and a few of his pals to take credit for what the legislature is trying to do.

Unfortunately, I am a Negative Nancy and feel the need to point out what gets my goat.

Let’s take a trip back to December 20, 2009 in the Herald-Leader:

Changes may be coming for NewCities

KLC AUDIT RAISES QUESTIONS ON VALUE OF THINK TANK

By Ryan Alessi and Linda B. Blackford

The NewCities Institute, an off-shoot of the Kentucky League of Cities, is likely to undergo changes following an auditor’s report that showed it has cost the League $7.2 million over eight years.

Several members of the League’s board said they weren’t sure what the institute actually does and whether it’s worth that investment.

“I can’t imagine the amount of money we were putting into that,” said Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson, who was KLC’s 2009 president and served on New Cities’ board last year. “Right now, I can’t see that we can afford it.”

Sylvia Lovely, who announced in August that she will resign as the League’s executive director in January, founded NewCities in 2002 as a non-profit think tank to foster “civic engagement” and consult on strategic planning for communities.

State auditor Crit Luallen released a report Thursday showing that most of the $7.2 million that the League spent to subsidize NewCities was in-kind contributions that covered overhead, such as its rent and the salaries of three NewCities employees.

The report said auditors struggled to measure NewCities’ effectiveness because the organization was “pretty vague” in documenting just what services it provided for communities.

“It’s time for the League of Cities to go back and determine if that’s the best use of that money, given what we believe is a lack of quantifiable results,” Luallen said. Her audit criticized League executives for giving themselves perks and for numerous conflicts of interest.

Click here to read the rest. You’ll want to, so you can understand just what a mess Kentucky still has on its hands.

Why’s that important? Because the KLC’s NewCities Institute, a Sylvia Lovely creation, is handling a ton of the TEK Talk forums (Warning: PDF Link):

• Paducah and West Kentucky – West Kentucky Community and Technical College – Faciltator, Tom Prather, NewCities Institute
• Bluegrass Region – Bluegrass Community and Technical College – Facilitator, NewCities Institute
• South Eastern Kentucky – Big Sandy Community College – Facilitator, Tad Long, NewCities Institute – he’s NC’s director of business development
• North Eastern Kentucky – Ashland Community and Technical College – Facilitator, Bobbie Bryant, NewCities Institute – she’s NC’s pr director

And it doesn’t help that Helen Mountjoy is still a part of the task force.

See why I’m HIGHLY SKEPTICAL now? The Kentucky League of Cities/Sylvia Lovely’s Crew are in charge.

TEK’s focus, according to the task force fact sheet (Warning: PDF Link), is on:

• Improving College Readiness
• Providing Every Student with the Opportunity to Earn College Credit During High School
• Creating a System of Assessments that Measure what Employers Value
• Ramping Up Academics in Career and Tech Schools
• Using Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning
• Improving Teacher Recruitment and Retention
• Improving Transitions Between Preschool to K-12

Now I’m even more creeped out.

Forgive me for being skeptical and suspicious of anything relating to Sylvia Lovely and the Kentucky League of Cities. But I think this is a nightmare waiting to happen.