FRANKFORT, Ky. — On Tuesday, Kentucky’s education commissioner highlighted a concerning budget shortfall of approximately $40 million affecting school districts, indicating that officials are actively exploring strategies to address this financial gap.
Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher mentioned that education authorities are collaborating with legislative budget committee leaders and the state budget director to identify funding solutions that would lessen the adverse effects on public education. This announcement comes just two weeks before the state’s Republican-controlled legislature resumes its sessions in February. Earlier this month, lawmakers convened for four days and are now on break for the remainder of January, which is customary during their 30-day sessions in odd-numbered years.
Although legislators approved a two-year state budget for 2024, they retain the autonomy to revisit it and make necessary adjustments during this year’s legislative session. Responses from legislative leaders to inquiries regarding the funding shortfall were not immediately received.
The urgency of Fletcher’s warning is compounded by a student-led lawsuit asserting that the state is neglecting its constitutional responsibility to provide all Kentucky students with sufficient and equitable educational opportunities. In his remarks, Fletcher pointed out a specific shortfall of nearly $12 million in the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding for public schools this academic year. The SEEK program serves as the primary funding mechanism for K-12 education in the state, accounting for basic per-pupil allocations and additional assistance for transportation and special needs.
Fletcher noted that while the projected shortfall is significant, it amounts to just 1.43% of the total SEEK funding, which is set at $2.7 billion. He also mentioned that similar SEEK funding shortfalls have occurred four times in the past 14 years since the 2010 fiscal year.
Furthermore, he pointed to an anticipated shortfall of an additional $28 million for funding public school districts, contingent on available finances. Fletcher emphasized the inherent challenges in formulating a two-year state budget for educational expenditures, which requires data on property values, student enrollments, and populations of special-needs students. Such data is critical for lawmakers as they outline the next biennial budget. He cautioned that projections are inherently uncertain and based on the most reliable information available at the time, which raises the risk of potential funding shortages if estimates fall short.
The backdrop of Fletcher’s comments is the ongoing lawsuit by high school students across Kentucky, who argue that the state has regressed in its educational commitments since significant reforms were introduced. The students contend that the discrepancies in educational quality have persisted regardless of economic status in various districts. This team, known as the Kentucky Student Voice Team, comprises around 100 students attending public schools statewide, some of whom are directly involved in the legal case.
The lawsuit targets prominent figures in the GOP-held legislature, the state Board of Education, and the education commissioner as defendants. It seeks to revisit a landmark 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court decision that declared the K-12 education system inadequate and inequitable, mandating legislative reform.
The subsequent enactment of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990 established a new funding framework aimed at promoting equal access to education. However, over the last twenty years, attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that the state has failed to uphold adequate base funding levels, which has placed an increasing economic strain on school districts. This inequity has led to a widening gap in per-student funding between affluent and impoverished districts that exceeds the unconstitutional disparities identified by the state Supreme Court decades earlier.
