‘Final’ KY budget boosts K-12 funding, but still no teacher raises

School funding has been increased yet again in what officials anticipate is the final version of the state’s executive branch budget.

However, that increase in K-12 school funding falls short of what public education advocacy groups and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear have been seeking. No direct payments or raises for Kentucky teachers were provided in the budget, although Republican legislative leaders say the funding should allow for schools to provide some raises.

The details are unclear, too, as a copy of the budget was not provided to the public, the opposing party or reporters until well after the meeting announcing the budget.

Unveiled in a Free Conference Committee with members of the House and Senate, the latest version of the budget provides a bump in the state’s per-pupil funding formula to local school districts, also known as the SEEK formula. The last budget passed in 2022 provided $4,100 and $4,200 in the ensuing two fiscal years per pupil.

The total dollar commitment was not mentioned, but the proposal in what Senate Appropriations & Revenue Chair Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, said was likely to be the final budget was $4,326 in the first fiscal year and $4,586 in the second.

That’s an increase of $612 per student over the two-year period, a slight bump up from the latest proposed increase of $523 more per student.

In other words, the per-pupil funding would jump by 3% in the first fiscal year beginning July 2024 and then 6% in the next fiscal year.

Direct teacher raises have long been an area of disagreement between Republican legislators and most Democrats, as well as Beshear. The governor campaigned on, and is actively lobbying for, providing an across-the-board 11% raise to teachers. He’s also pushed for funding of Universal pre-K, which is not being funded in the state budget.

Despite statehouse Republicans’ long reluctance to providing such a raise, McDaniel told reporters discussion on that item took up more time during Free Conference Committee meetings – such meetings and negotiations between the branches can occur outside of the public eye – than any other.

“That was probably the single longest conversation and negotiation that we had and (the SEEK increase) is how we tried to address that,” McDaniel said.

When asked if there was a chance for direct teacher raises or payments – as proposed in a bill from Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, that has a majority of the House GOP caucus’ support – to get introduced in another appropriations bill, McDaniel said he “doesn’t see that” happening.

Aside from SEEK funding, the latest version of the budget funds 90% of student transportation costs in the first fiscal year and fully funds it in the following fiscal year. That’s a considerable jump from the latest budget, which funded 70% of student transportation costs.

Also, Tier 1 equalization, a system that helps less-wealthy school districts get more funding from the state, was raised from 15% to 17.5%. The move will allow those districts to get more state funding to balance out funding disparities with more wealthy districts.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said the change in SEEK funding should allow the “average school system” to give a 5% salary increase over the next two years given careful management of their funds.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators didn’t quite agree. They lauded the increased investments in student transportation and Tier 1 equalization, but said the SEEK increase isn’t enough.

“It will not position districts to advance teacher salaries more than 2 or 3% which means thousands of teacher salaries are well below $45k. Higher paying districts along with Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio will still attract our brightest and best—leaving Kentucky still in a severe teacher shortage,” the administrators group said in a statement.