School officials, legislators swap notes

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW January 05, 2009 12:07 pm

— Area educators asked state legislators during a round table discussion Saturday at Caverna High School to not cut education funding.
The pool of money educators hope remains untouched is the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, or SEEK money. The program is a formula driven allocation of state provided money to local school districts.
Dr. Sam Dick, superintendent of the Caverna Independent School System, pointed out area schools are making gains due to programs and services mandated by the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Many of those programs and services are paid for by SEEK dollars, but if that pool of money is cut such programs and services are in danger of being lost.
“The things that have been funded to help us reach these positions and to make these gains are in danger of being taken away,” Dick said.
Dr. Jerry Ralston, superintendent of Barren County Schools, asked legislators if they supported Gov. Steve Beshear’s plan to not cut SEEK funding and to eliminate 2 percent of state grant funding.
“I don’t know and I can’t promise you anything,” said Rep. Dottie Sims, D-Horse Cave.
She said the state has a $456 million budget shortfall.
“We’re trying not to do anything to education. We’re trying to leave it as it is,” she said. “We say that every year, I know.”
Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, said everyone in the room is on the same page in regards to the value of rural education.
He noted that the state average income is $27,000, which means Kentucky is ranked 44th in the nation.
“The average income of the six counties I serve in my Senate district is $22,000. Rural Kentucky is pulling down the state average,” he said. “Raising the average income in rural Kentucky is one of the key solutions long-term for us to fund education.”
When the state’s average income is raised, he said, the state’s revenue stream also improves and therefore there is more revenue to fund education.
“We would love to fund education above and beyond what it’s funded now. The reality is, though, this is a difficult economic time. I would not be an honest legislator if I sat here and said we’re not going to do anything to education. The intent I have is to protect SEEK funding. My intent is to minimize the other cuts to educational funding,” he said.
Givens also touched on the numbers used by budget forecasters to define the remaining six months of the 2008-09 fiscal year. There are three numbers.
One is considered to be optimistic, another middle-of-the-road and the third one is pessimistic.
“They typically make public the middle-of-the-road number. In this case, they made public the pessimistic number. So, hopefully, $456 million is the very worst. Hopefully, it’s not going to be that bad, but I don’t think it’s wise for me to say at this point that education is going to be spared,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Barren, Caverna and Glasgow Board of Education officials.
Other topics of discussion were streamlining KERA and the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, principal selection, utility tax, TVA funding in lieu of taxes, facility funding and prevailing wage.

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