The House Education Committee is expected to consider a proposal next week to make the private University of Pikeville part of the state's higher education system. House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Tuesday that the proposal remains alive and well, despite some county-level opposition to a plan to use revenue from the state's coal severance tax to fund it. Former Governor Paul Patton, now president of the University of Pikeville, proposed turning the private school into a state university as a means to allow more Appalachian residents to go on to college. State funding could lower tuition, making a college degree more affordable for people living in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.
