From last week's LEO:

Henhouse hires fox
Both agencies that oversee public education in Kentucky are finding it impossible to hire leaders, possibly because it's not a lot of fun doing the impossible with the unfunded for the thankless. Both the Kentucky Department of Education, which oversees K-12 schools, and the Council on Postsecondary Education, which oversees public colleges, have seen candidates for their top jobs vamoose faster than free-and-reduced lunches at the poor kids' table.

Accordingly, both agencies have resorted to the I-word -- "interim" – in hopes of buying some time until new suckers… er, leaders can be headhunted. But The Council on Postsecondary Education might have found its man in Ernie Fletcher's budget chief Brad Cowgill. The council hired Gowgill as its interim president last week and hinted he would make a great candidate for the $275,000-per-year job permanently. And why not? It's impossible to ponder the prospect of the Fletcher administration's top spreadsheet guy struggling to oversee starving universities without the word "karma" coming to mind. The consolation prize for Cowgill: if he takes the job permanently, he'll be employed next year.