K-12 targeted initiatives have lost key funding

In 2008, Kentucky’s state budget supported a thoughtful set of targeted programs that served students directly or equipped teachers to serve students more effectively. By 2018, almost all of those programs have been cut or removed from the budget entirely.

More than $28 million has been taken from programs that had 2008 funding of $1 million or more:

• -$6.6 million from Read to Achieve grants
• -$6.3 million from Extended School Services
• -$5.0 million from Instructional Resources (Textbooks)
• -$3.2 million from the Professional Growth Fund
• -$3.1 million from Professional Development
• -$1.5 million from the Mathematics Achievement Fund
• -$0.9 million from the State Agency Children program
• -$0.5 million from the Teacher Recruitment and Retention program
• -$0.5 million from the Gifted and Talented program
• -$0.2 million from Teacher Academies
• -$0.2 million from the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development
• -$0.1 million from the Commonwealth School Improvement Fund

Three programs with 2008 funding of $1 million or more have held steady or grown slightly, with:

• No change to funding for the Safe Schools program
• $0.2 million added for salary supplements for Nationally Board Certified Teachers
• $0.3 million added for Family Resource and Youth Services Centers

Taken together, the many reductions and the few increases net out at more than $27 million of reductions in state support for learning strategies and for teaching quality.

In addition, programs funded for $33.5 million are no longer shown as budget line items at all. The vanished items included:

• -$19.5 million from the Kentucky Education Technology (KETS)
• -$8.4 million from the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS)
• -$5.6 million from Highly Skilled Educators

It seems likely that the Department continues to spend some dollars on those needs, drawing from the parts of its appropriation that are not controlled by specific line items. For example, the technology part of the Department website reports that “KDE provides a yearly funding stream based on Adjusted Average Daily Attendance (AADA) as reported on the Superintendent's Annual Attendance Report (SAAR).” Whatever the Department is allocating, concerned citizens cannot readily see what those amounts are, whether they are increasing or decreasing, or whether they meet or fall short of the learning needs.

Overall, these targeted investments, meant to sustain statewide strategies for building excellence with equity,  are substantially weaker in 2018 than they were a decade ago.