Kentucky School Advocate

May 2024

By Karen Byrd

KSBA President

With each legislative session, there is bound to be at least one bill you won’t like. Admittedly, I had braced for several such bills ahead of the 2024 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. While it wasn’t perfect, I could not help but come away from this session with a mild sense of relief. 

KSBA’s top legislative priority for 2024 – and just about every budget session – is the adequate funding of our common schools. To their credit, we saw lawmakers make sizable investments in several key areas as part of the newly passed biennial budget. Many school districts will see increases in the form of Base SEEK funding, critical to providing district employee raises and retaining talented professionals. Increased Tier 1 SEEK equalization will benefit districts with lower property assessments and growth district equalization will help support the needs of those whose populations are surging. Transportation funding saw a much-needed bump. School Resource Officer reimbursements. Student teacher stipends. Budget reserves to help pay down pension liabilities. Targeted funding for school construction projects. There are quite a few line items to be excited about. 

Beyond the budget, we saw the General Assembly take hard looks at many systemic issues facing our schools such as teacher shortages, truancy, math proficiency, kindergarten readiness, discipline and more, resulting in fruitful discussion and, in some cases, the passage of good policy. 

We even saw a bill that makes positive changes to how citizens can file to run for school board and obtain state-mandated board training; a small but meaningful victory for KSBA and its members that will contribute to good governance. 

Perhaps just as important as what passed is what didn’t. Often bills are filed that, as originally written, pose danger to our public schools. In some cases, KSBA and other education advocates work directly with legislators to amend or remove language from drafts of bills that might have unintended consequences. Their receptiveness to that input highlights the importance of maintaining productive relationships with our elected leaders in Frankfort.

KSBA staff kept close watch on more than 240 bills with potential impact on public schools. A fraction of those ping-ponged between the House, Senate and the governor’s desk to ultimately become law. The result: thousands of individual board policy and procedural changes across Kentucky’s 171 districts. Some large changes, some small: all important to understand. Thankfully, in just a matter of days, KSBA’s talented policy and legal experts will release to board teams the much-anticipated annual policy updates and, with them, the assurance that what you have on the books will be up to snuff with statute. 

It’s unfortunate that we have come to define success in policymaking as, “it could have been a lot worse.” We only have to look to our neighboring states to see legislation that encroaches on local control, stifles funding and over politicizes the education of our students. Thankfully, I believe that the 2024 legislative session in Kentucky will be defined by its wins for public education, not its setbacks. 

That isn’t to say that we can ease our foot off the gas. Our advocacy work as local representatives and trustees of our schools does not end when the General Assembly adjourns. The legislative “offseason,” coupled with summer break, presents a unique opportunity for school board members and administrators to engage with their legislators, localizing the challenges facing schools in their own backyards.

I can think of no timelier example of this than HB 2, the constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall when voters throughout the Commonwealth will not only select their preferences for president, state legislators and school board members, among others, but also decide whether seven sections of the Kentucky constitution should be suspended to allow public dollars to be directed to nonpublic schools. As stewards of public education, we shoulder a great deal of responsibility in ensuring our constituencies and our lawmakers understand what’s on the line on Election Day.