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Kentucky schools told to trim 'administrative overhead'

JCPS Superintendent defends staff after Governor Bevin calls for administrative overhead cuts to Kentucky budget.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) -- The budget proposal announced by Governor Matt Bevin will require school districts confront pay for administrators and transportation funding cuts but SEEK funding will remain at the same level.

Tuesday night, the Commonwealth’s Republican governor announced his plan to deal with a state budget crisis with a proposal that cuts costs 6.25% across the board.

Kentucky school districts will need to come up with 33% more money for transportation costs if Governor Matt Bevin's budget passes.

Governor Bevin also wants to rein in salaries for school administrators, specifically calling out the Jefferson County Public Schools.

The governor promised to fully fund pensions despite the lack of a reform bill.

His budget proposal calls for cuts to school transportation costs reducing the amount of state funding to local districts from 58 percent to 25 percent., that's the amount paid per pupil to fund schools will remain at $3,981. During his State of the Commonwealth and Budget Address Tuesday night, Governor Bevin touted that figure as the highest level ever matching that of the past two years. But paying funding for SEEK as the commonwealth faces a budget shortfall, he explained, would be funded by targeting administrators at school.

“In Jefferson County alone, there's been articles you've seen these, more than 600 administrators making $100,000 a year or more," He said. “That's more than $60M, conservatively."

Administration officials say the goal is to bring administrative costs to 15 percent over the two year budget with expectations that they'll reduce the figure by 12 percent next fiscal year on way to the goal.

They claim some districts are spending more than 30 percent of their budget on administrators.

"Frankly, we've got to take care of making sure that we don't rob our students," said Gov. Bevin. “So where then is the money going to come from? It's going to come by cutting administrative overhead. That's where it's going to come from.”

Acting JCPS Superintendent Doctor Marty Pollio released a statement Wednesday in response to the budget proposal:

“As acting superintendent, I’ve spent the last six months working alongside our state partners to improve educational experiences and outcomes for JCPS students and their families. One of my top priorities has been returning funds to our schools and classrooms where we can have the most direct impact on increasing student learning. I am concerned that last night’s proposals could significantly impact our progress.

As we’ve been reviewing administrative costs and returning more dollars to schools, I know as a former principal how important it is to have quality administrators supporting our students. Of the employees recently referenced, 63 percent of those work in our schools with students full-time. They are principals, assistant principals, counselors, school psychologists and nurses who interact with students every day.

I am committed to seeing our improvement efforts through, and I appreciate the continued support of the Kentucky Department of Education as we face the challenges ahead.”

The Kentucky Educators Association also responded with a statement:

Governor Bevin’s State of the Commonwealth Budget Address was a mixed bag of good and bad news for public education.

KEA applauds the Governor’s proposal to fund state pensions in the amount of $3.3 billion over the biennium. This level of pension funding is desperately needed to ensure the promises made to public employees.

However, KEA is very concerned with some of the proposals that eliminate programs. The Kentucky Teacher Internship Program (KTIP) is one of the premier teacher induction and support programs for first-year teachers in the nation; eliminating this program undermines Kentucky’s efforts to sustain teacher quality throughout the Commonwealth. Cutting professional development for educators has the same effect.

He also proposes eliminating funding for “textbooks,” which covers so much more than books. Students need access to current, reliable learning resources, and the textbook fund provides that for them.

Cuts to environmental education and to funding for community education, programs that benefit students with special needs, and teacher recruitment and retention also hurt public education for obvious reasons.

The proposed cuts go well beyond this list.

Thankfully this is only a proposal by Governor Bevin. KEA encourages all educators and supporters of public education to contact their legislators with their concerns and express the need to find additional funding for Kentucky public schools and the students we serve.

House Minority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins voiced concern over administrative overhead cuts and how the Governor hopes districts will cope with the 33 percent drop in transportation funding.

Governor Bevin claimed that some districts have upwards of $100M in reserve accounts set aside for tough times and now was the time for them to tap those reserves.

“I worry about those school districts that don't have hardly any reserve and he mentions taking transportation dollars from local districts. Let me tell you, transportation dollars haven't been increased back to school districts in over a decade," said Leader Adkins.

Seventy other programs will get no funding at all. Here is a list of those programs taken directly from the budget:

13 34. Program Elimination: Notwithstanding any statute to the contrary or any 14 other provisions of this Act, no state funds (General Fund, General Fund (Tobacco) 15 Restricted Funds, Coal Severance, Road Fund, or Lottery Funds) are appropriated in 16 either fiscal year 2018-2019 or fiscal year 2019-2020 for the following programs: 17 (1) County Fair Grants within the Department of Agriculture; 18 (2) Farmer’s Market Senior Program within the Department of Agriculture; 19 (3) ARC of Kentucky; 20 (4) Kentucky Lung Cancer Education Awareness Detection Survivorship 21 Collaborative; 22 (5) Norton Kosair Children’s Hospital Poison Control Center; 23 (6) Kentucky Colon Cancer Screening Program; 24 (7) Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program; 25 (8) Madison County Early Intervention Services; 26 (9) Lung Cancer Research within the Council on Postsecondary Education; 27 (10) Washington D.C. Internships within the Council on Postsecondary Education; UNOFFICIAL COPY 18 RS BR 827 Page 131 of 151 BR082700.100 - 827 - XXXX Jacketed 1 (11) Professional Education Preparation within the Council on Postsecondary 2 Education; 3 (12) Minority Student College Preparation within the Council on Postsecondary 4 Education; 5 (13) Autism Training Center within the Council on Postsecondary Education; 6 (14) Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Scholars within the Council on 7 Postsecondary Education; 8 (15) Community Operations Board at Eastern Kentucky University; 9 (16) Adult Agriculture at the Kentucky Community and Technical College 10 System; 11 (17) Kentucky Coal Academy at the Kentucky Community and Technical College 12 System; 13 (18) Kentucky Folk Art Center at Morehead State University; 14 (19) Kentucky Center for Mathematics at Northern Kentucky University; 15 (20) University Press at the University of Kentucky; 16 (21) Kentucky Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky; 17 (22) Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Kentucky; 18 (23) Hospital Direct Support at the University of Kentucky; 19 (24) Agriculture Public Service at the University of Kentucky; 20 (25) Kentucky Mesonet at Western Kentucky University; 21 (26) Trover Clinic; 22 (27) Mining Engineering Scholarships at the University of Kentucky; 23 (28) Robinson Scholars at the University of Kentucky; 24 (29) Family Medical Residency in Owensboro; 25 (30) State Planning Fund in the Office of State Budget Director; 26 (31) Area Development Fund in the Department for Local Government; 27 (32) Conservation Districts Local Aid; UNOFFICIAL COPY 18 RS BR 827 Page 132 of 151 BR082700.100 - 827 - XXXX Jacketed 1 (33) State Tree Nurseries; 2 (34) Environmental Education Council; 3 (35) Libraries – Direct Local Aid Non-Construction State Aid (excluding debt 4 service); 5 (36) Kentucky Teacher Internships within the Educational Professional Standards 6 Board; 7 (37) County Costs – Sheriff’s Expense Allowance; 8 (38) Commission on Women; 9 (39) Kentucky Legal Education Opportunity Fund; 10 (40) Access to Justice; 11 (41) Life Safety or Closed Jails; 12 (42) Local Jailers Allowance; 13 (43) Instructional Resources (Textbooks) within the Kentucky Department of 14 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 15 (44) Professional Development Program within the Kentucky Department of 16 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 17 (45) Appalachian Learning Disabled Tutoring Program within the Kentucky 18 Department of Education’s Learning and Results Services; 19 (46) Commonwealth School Improvement Fund within the Kentucky Department 20 of Education’s Learning and Results Services; 21 (47) Community Education Program within the Kentucky Department of 22 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 23 (48) Collaborative Center for Literacy Development within the Kentucky 24 Department of Education’s Learning and Results Services; 25 (49) Go Higher within Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority; 26 (50) Work Study scholarships within the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance 27 Authority; UNOFFICIAL COPY 18 RS BR 827 Page 133 of 151 BR082700.100 - 827 - XXXX Jacketed 1 (51) Teacher Scholarships within the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance 2 Authority; 3 (52) Early Childhood Development scholarships within the Kentucky Higher 4 Education Assistance Authority; 5 (53) Whitehaven Welcome Center; 6 (54) Bluegrass State Games; 7 (55) Frankfort-based cafeterias within the Department of Parks; 8 (56) Insurance subsidy program within the Personnel Cabinet; 9 (57) School Technology in Coal Counties; 10 (58) Coal County College Completion Scholarship Program; 11 (59) Arts Council Marketing Program; 12 (60) Georgia Chafee Teenage Parent Program within the Kentucky Department of 13 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 14 (61) Leadership and Mentor Fund within the Kentucky Department of Education’s 15 Learning and Results Services; 16 (62) Middle School Academic Center within the Kentucky Department of 17 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 18 (63) Teacher’s Professional Growth Fund within the Kentucky Department of 19 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 20 (64) Teacher Academies Program within the Kentucky Department of Education’s 21 Learning and Results Services; 22 (65) Teacher Recruitment and Retention Program-Educator Quality and Diversity 23 within the Kentucky Department of Education’s Learning and Results Services; 24 (66) Virtual Learning Program within the Kentucky Department of Education’s 25 Learning and Results Services; 26 (67) Writing Program within the Kentucky Department of Education’s Learning 27 and Results Services; UNOFFICIAL COPY 18 RS BR 827 Page 134 of 151 BR082700.100 - 827 - XXXX Jacketed 1 (68) Lexington Hearing and Speech Center within the Kentucky Department of 2 Education’s Learning and Results Services; 3 (69) Heuser Hearing and Language Academy within the Kentucky Department of 4 Education’s Learning and Results Services; and 5 (70) Teach for America within the Kentucky Department of Education’s Learning 6 and Results Services.

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