Panel: School districts should invest more in facilities

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Some lawmakers say they want Kentucky school districts to invest more in their oldest and most dilapidated schools rather than just wait for state money.

A legislative budget subcommittee on education met Thursday to ask state education officials how to address Kentucky’s 165 schools classified as Category 4 or Category 5, which have gone at least 30 years without a major renovation. A few date back to the 1920s and have serious structural flaws.

The problem briefly was in the news in June as the legislature debated allowing slot machines at racetracks and allocating $850 million from the projected revenue to replace many old schools. But the slots bill died.

Larry Stinson, associate education commissioner, told the panel that Kentucky has reduced the number of old and decrepit schools over the last decade, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on construction. In some places that still have such schools, the districts could do more to help themselves, Stinson said.

Most districts levy only a 5-cent tax on every $100 in assessed property value to fund their school facilities, producing local money that is matched with state aid. However, some districts levy 10 to 15 cents and can afford to build more.

The state Education Department wants the minimum tax rate set at 10 cents, Stinson said, and it wants required maintenance standards so that districts keep their existing buildings in decent shape.

Several lawmakers told Stinson they agreed with this strategy, including Rep. Tommy Thompson, D-Owensboro, who chairs the House budget subcommittee for education.

However, after the hearing, Thompson said it could be difficult for the legislature to require poor school districts to raise additional taxes locally or spend more on maintenance. Robertson County, for instance, desperately needs to replace its single school, built shortly after World War I, but it’s a poor county with only a few thousand residents.

“We do want the school districts to pull their own weight,” Thompson said. “But I think we’ll have to recognize that there are unique circumstances in some counties.”

Filed Under: Education • KY General Assembly • State Government