In response to the court's ruling, the General Assembly passed the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act, which radically altered Kentucky's school system, providing mechanisms to equalize funding among school districts and implementing some of the toughest accountability standards in the United States. Of the legislature's actions, Combs opined "Kentucky has now, by reason of this legislation, decided to become educated—and we have embarked on a crusade for that purpose. Don't be surprised if we should within the next decade develop a first class, world-wide educational system."[76]