KENTUCKY — The 2024 legislative session of the Kentucky General Assembly came to a close on April 15th, with more than 1,200 bills filed by state lawmakers, the highest number in over two decades.
On this week’s program, we’re taking a closer look at some of the education related legislation that advanced out of this year’s legislative session.
State Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Nicholasville, has been in the state House of Representatives since 2021. He is also a school administrator with Fayette County Public Schools and has a long history of working in the primary and education industry. During this segment, Timoney shared his perspective on several education related topics, including the Republican-led General Assembly’s historic investment in spending for public education in its two-year state spending plan, which adds additional money into K-12 schools through the SEEK formula. SEEK is short for Support Education Excellence in Kentucky and it works by combining state and local dollars.
“You know, we talked about the seek increase, which is the highest level it’s ever been in dollars. You know, there are obviously the adversaries would say, well, inflation is taking its toll. So, you know, $100 Today isn’t worth what $100 was 10 years ago, and, and they’re, they’re accurate there. But the reality is, is that we’re spending more per-SEEK allocation than ever before. In addition to that, and this is one of the parts that a lot of people don’t necessarily kind of understand the back part of how schools fund their budgets. You know, we’re funding 90% of the transportation budget this year and 100% of the transportation budget next year. They’re like, well, that’s something they should be doing, anyway. And you’re right, that is something, but it’s something that we haven’t done. So that is an increase in funding. Also, school districts typically rely on their general funds to make up the difference in transportation funding. So that’s money that districts will now be freed up to be able to pay to pay into other capacities,” explains Timoney.
Two high-priority items included in Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., wish list for the general assembly — guaranteed 11% pay raise for teachers and all other public school employees and access to preschool for every 4-year-old in the Commonwealth were not a part of the state legislature’s final budget plan.
“Universal pre K, and funding pre K is two different things. Universal pre K would mean all students, three- and four-year-olds, would go to and have pre K Services, in school settings. I believe strongly that we need high-quality preschool and child care, either, you know, private in the private groups, or in public and pre K. However, I do think that it’s worth mentioning that if we did go to Universal pre K for next school year, or even the school year after that, the incredible demands that were placed on school districts to find staffing, even facilities. I know in Fayette County, that if we were just to increase the threshold, for pre K from the current system, the current level of 200%, of their of the threshold to even are actually from 180% to 200% that would be an increase of 1700 students. I don’t know where we would put them, we don’t have the facilities, and we don’t have the teachers for them. So I think that that’s a really important piece there. I do strongly, strongly believe that we’ve got to have a plan moving forward. But I think the phrase universal pre K is probably one that if we tried it, it would fail miserably. And I believe the state of New York did, and it was one of those catastrophic failures to your pay. For the second part, yes, we need to increase teacher pay, the state of Tennessee has passed a minimum for the entire state of $50,000. For a starting with a teacher with zero years of experience, that’s going to put the state of Kentucky if you’re within two counties of the Tennessee border, and you’re not actively contacting the licensure board in Tennessee, and acting about getting a Tennessee license to start applying for jobs, you know, you’re very loyal to the state of Kentucky. And I hope that you stay that loyal, but we’ve got to be able to make our public schools at the cornerstones in our communities,” adds Timoney.
During this segment, Timoney also comments on House Bill 2, also known as the “school choice” constitutional amendment, that Kentucky voters will be able to weigh in on November. The ballot measure asks the people of the Commonwealth if they want to change the constitution to allow the legislature to fund non-public schools, like private and charter schools.
You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.