Thursday, December 03, 2009

School News from Around Kentucky

Schools face $20 million spending cut: The Kentucky Department of Education plans to cut its spending by about $20 million over the rest of this fiscal year, which could affect many programs in local school districts around the state. Bedrock items including the basic funding formula for local schools would be spared in the reductions. But dropout prevention, community education, and gifted and talented programs are among those that could be affected. The cuts would come from the state pre-school through 12th-grade education budget, including operations of the state Education Department. (Bluegrass Politics)

P-12 Cuts Pending: Commissioner Holliday notified superintendents Monday that he has been asked to plan for cuts of up to $20 million to P-12 education. His e-mail is here...The immune programs were decided by the Governor. However, it's worth noting that the Commissioner is not considering cuts to all the remaining program. He says he is not considering "flexible focus funds" and his list of possible cuts does indeed leave out extended school services, professional development, and safe schools. Beyond that, his list leaves out highly skilled educators, the School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf, state testing, the state share of school lunch costs, and the state share of Infinite Campus costs. So, which $20 million would you cut? (Prichard)

Schools brace for more cuts: Holliday and member superintendents talked about the potential education cuts at an LSAC meeting Tuesday, Shelton said."We would, of course, like to see no cuts, but if they must, first we would like to see them cut excess SEEK funds from the state that have not been allocated yet," Shelton said. "The commissioner understood that."The state does its initial SEEK allocation to districts based on a forecast. The funding is set firm later. The state should have excess SEEK funds from that process, he said.When specific funds are cut, such as those for family resource and youth service centers, but the state continues to require districts to have those programs, then districts must pay for them from the general fund, Shelton said."The reality is, if you cut funds but don't cut program requirements, then you have cut the general fund," he said. "Why not cut the general fund to begin with, and then we can decide where to move money around in our districts." (Messenger-Enquirer)

School programs to be cut by $20 million: Education Commissioner Terry Holliday is telling Kentucky’s public school superintendents to brace themselves for $20 million in cuts this year to programs such as preschool for at-risk and disabled children, reading help and dropout prevention... Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman said cuts to some of the programs on the table would hurt his students, such as potential cuts to a Jefferson County reading initiative and school resource centers, which connect families in need to social services. (C-J)

Danville and Boyle schools want community input: The brutal fact about education today is that even though Danville and Boyle County schools are doing a good job, there is a challenge ahead for teachers and administrators, and room for improvement. Danville and Boyle County superintendents Carmen Coleman and Mike LaFavers want to get the dialogue started. (Advocate-Messenger)

Beshear reverses ground on tax reform - SEEK funding safe - for now: Gov. Steve Beshear and Kentucky face “probably the toughest budgetary times this commonwealth has seen in a long, long time,” but Beshear is ruling out any broad-based tax reform in recessionary times.During an interview with CNHI News Service, Beshear said “the middle of this recession is not the time to have broad-based tax increases on our people.” Beshear also said it’s too early to know whether basic education funding and other priorities he’s tried to protect from previous budget cuts will be spared in the next two-year budget and he’s not worried about a recent poll showing his favorability numbers are slipping. (Daily-Independent)

Ky.'s new admissions rules will increase need for remedial courses: Kentucky's higher education institutions are bracing for a spike in students needing remedial reading and math next year — a result of a tougher admissions regulation intended to ensure students have the skills needed to do college work. All public colleges and universities will be affected, but the state's community colleges might feel the biggest impact, withofficials there estimating between 17,400 and 20,000 new students will need to take remedial courses before being allowed to enroll in courses carrying credit toward a degree. That's a 30 percent to 50 percent increase over the 13,300 first-time students who took remedial education classes this fall in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. (Courier-Journal)

Ky. chamber calling for legislative adjustments - Education top priority in 2010: The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce ...is calling for significant changes in several areas of the state budget to help get Kentucky out of the red and stop the “leaky bucket” from wasting more state funds.“People ask how things are going in Frankfort, and things are pretty rough in the sense that money is extremely tight,” [Chamber President and CEO Dave] Adkisson said. “The No. 1 issue for businesses today is the economy … the biggest issue in state government is the budget.”Adkisson said education is the chamber’s top priority next year, but he also addressed specific changes needed in state corrections and health care for public employees. (Kentucky New Era)

Boone PVA questions tax rates: Boone County Property Valuation Administrator Cindy Rich has asked the Kentucky Attorney General to weigh in on how local property tax rates are calculated. House Bill 44, passed in 1979, allows local governments and taxing districts to take up to 4 percent more property tax revenue than in the previous year. But Rich says a loophole in the law means some local governments get more than that. (Enquirer)

School board says no to state proposal: At last Thursday's regularly scheduled Hancock County Board of Education meeting, the board voted 5-1 to pass a resolution opposing a move by the state to raid school districts' contingency funds to balance the state budget. House Speaker Greg Stumbo made the suggestion in mid-October. The Bowling Green Daily News quoted Stumbo as saying, "We do have a bunch of money that the schools have saved in their budgets, their 'rainy day' funds. And there's a pretty good sum of money there which will help us get through." Stumbo's proposal created a firestorm of opposition from school districts across the state. The Kentucky School Boards Association prepared a resolution against the idea, and sent it to local school districts asking them to pass the measure. (Hancock Clarion)

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