State board, Commissioner Draud ask that SEEK be exempted from cuts

This from Brad Hughes at KSBA:

Frankfort — Education Commissioner John Draud and the Kentucky Board of Education are asking Gov. Steve Beshear to avoid reducing SEEK funding to the state’s 174 districts when he proposes how to eliminate a projected $456 million revenue shortfall.

As it opened its two-day meeting Wednesday in Frankfort, both state board Chairman Joe Brothers and Draud urged Beshear’s education secretary, Helen Mountjoy, to take a message to the governor: Leave the SEEK funding alone.

“SEEK is the core of KERA and is how we ensure that we are fair and equitable in funding education for all children,” Brothers said.

“It’s critical that we consider exempting SEEK from this cut, because it won’t happen this year, but it will big-time next year,” Draud said. “The data that we have is that a lot of districts will be in the red and under the 2 percent margin.” ...