All Entries in the "Education" Category

Budget cuts will delay implementation of new core education standards

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state’s top education leaders told a legislative panel Wednesday that proposed budget cuts to the Department of Education will delay implementation of new standards called for in a 2009 overhaul of Kentucky’s education system.

Terry Holliday, commissioner of the Department of Education, told a House budget subcommittee that cuts proposed under Gov. Steve Besehar’s two-year budget will also mean less money for teacher professional development and less money for technology assistance for local school districts. There also will be no new state money to help some schools that have been deemed low-performing schools.

Beshear’s proposed budget does not include cuts to the main funding formula for Kentucky schools, commonly called SEEK, or Support Educational Excellence in Kentucky. However, other parts of the education budget would be cut, including an 8.4 percent cut to administration and technology and a 4.5 percent cut to instruction, assessment and curriculum programs and to the Kentucky School for the Blind and the Kentucky School for the Deaf.

For-profit college regulatory bill proceeds to House

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The private, for-profit college industry would stop regulating itself at the state level under a bill that a Kentucky House committee approved Wednesday.

“This is not everything that we probably all would like to see in the bill, but it is doable and it is a start,” said Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, the bill’s sponsor. A stronger bill last year was passed by the House but died in the Senate in the face of aggressive industry lobbying.

House Bill 308, which proceeds to the full House, would abolish the controversial Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses scores of for-profit schools offering two-year associate’s degrees, technical certificates and other diplomas in different career fields.

Industry representatives hold six of the board’s 11 seats and frequently serve as chairman. A state audit last year sharply criticized the board, calling it an inattentive watchdog that fails to protect the interests of students. At the same time, student lawsuits and investigations in Kentucky and elsewhere have raised questions about deceptive marketing and the quality of educations sold by the schools.

K-12 schools’ funding would revert to 2008 levels; colleges take another hit

By Linda B. Blackford
lblackford@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — School children may see bigger classes while college students are sure to pay higher tuition under the budget proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear.

Beshear said he had protected both K-12 and higher education as long as he could. But next year, basic funding for K-12 students will revert to 2008 levels, while state universities could lose as much as $65 million.

Beshear would not cut the K-12 schools’ main funding formula, but because there is no new money and more students, spending per student will go down from the planned $3,903 in 2012 to $3,833 in 2013 and $3,827 in 2014. That doesn’t count a proposed 4.5 percent cut in 2013 to other educational services, such as family resource centers, extended school services, professional development and technology.

House panel approves bill to raise school dropout age

HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

FRANKFORT – A House panel approved a bill Tuesday that would raise the school dropout age from 16 to 18, beginning in 2017. House Bill 216 now goes to the full House, where it is likely to pass.

However, the measure — pushed by First Lady Jane Beshear — has an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled Senate. A similar bill passed the Democratic-controlled House last year but was never heard by the Senate Education Committee.

Republicans in the Senate have expressed concerns about the costs of keeping teens who want to drop out in school and the lack of alternative programs for them. Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, has filed a similar bill in the Senate to raise the dropout age.

The House bill requires students to attend school until at least age 17, beginning July 1, 2016, unless the student has already completed high school. Beginning July 1, 2017, students must complete high school or stay in school until at least 18.

Casinos no cure-all for state budgets, economists say

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Faced with another round of state budget cuts, Gov. Steve Beshear promotes casino gambling as a way “to improve our revenues long-term” in Kentucky.

But the nearly two dozen states that get revenue from casinos have struggled financially during the past three years, just like everyone else, according to a Lexington Herald-Leader analysis.

All of them cut spending; half raised taxes. Some fired thousands of their public workers, including educators and police, and gutted their basic classroom funding.

Experts who study gambling’s economic impact said Kentucky should be realistic about what it could win. Casinos are a poor substitute for a strong, stable tax base, they said.

“Casinos will almost certainly increase your revenue to some extent. But there will be offsets and costs that you also need to consider,” said Alan Mallach, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia.

Feds deny request to delay new insurance rules to 2014

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Federal officials have denied Kentucky’s request to delay implementation of a portion of the federal health care overhaul bill until 2014.

But officials with the Department of Health and Human Services did allow Kentucky to delay full implementation of the provision that would require insurance companies to spend 80 percent of premiums on paying customers’ claims until 2012, according to letter the federal agency sent the state on Friday.

Kentucky plus 11 other states and Guam had asked federal authorities to delay implementing the requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The medical loss ratio was born out of concerns that insurance companies were spending too much on executive salaries, marketing and other overhead costs while at the same time raising premiums for customers. If an insurance company does not meet the 80 percent ratio it will be required to forfeit or repay its customers.

State auditor criticizes board that oversees for-profit education

By Cheryl Truman
ctruman@herald-leader.com

The board that regulates the state’s 122 for-profit colleges provides inadequate oversight, hasn’t had an outside financial audit in 10 years and lacks a clear understanding of its role, according to an audit released Wednesday by State Auditor Crit Luallen.

The Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education oversees the burgeoning field of for-profit colleges that enroll more than 19,000 students each year and specialize in educating them for specific careers. The institutions are known for their bold recruiting, including TV commercials featuring people who have gone from unemployment to middle-class lifestyles after completing career training with the colleges.

“Board leadership is fundamental in establishing the tone for its operations,” Luallen said. “When the leadership is lax and inconsistent, then the quality of the board’s oversight is diminished. It’s essential for the board to carry out its statutory duty to monitor these schools.”

The board is dominated by the same people who run the colleges. Six of its 11 seats are filled by representatives of the colleges themselves. The members of the board are appointed by the governor.

School dropout bill heads to state House floor for third time

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — For the third time in two years, the House Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday to raise Kentucky’s school dropout age from 16 to 18.

The House is expected to approve the bill Wednesday. But the bill’s sponsor said he doesn’t know if the Senate will let it die again, as it did in 2010 and during the regular 2011 legislative session that ended last week.

Gov. Steve Beshear put the dropout bill on the agenda for the special legislative session that began Monday, but Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said earlier this week there is no sentiment in the Senate to increase the dropout age.

“I don’t know what they’ll do,” said Rep. Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, said of the Senate. “It helps that it’s one of just two bills in the special session. That puts more emphasis on it. We have so many bills during the regular sessions, but this time they can spend the time to really break down the bill and study it.”

Stumbo: No spending cuts to education

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Thursday that the Democratic-controlled House would not support the Senate’s plan to make cuts to education, but left the door open for possible cuts to other parts of state government.

“We are not going to cut education,” Stumbo said. “Not when there is a viable alternative. And there is a viable alternative.”

Stumbo’s comments came a day after the Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of House Bill 305. That version calls for cuts across state government, including cuts to higher education and K-12 education, to plug a hole in the Medicaid budget.

Now the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate must hammer out an agreement in the waning days of the legislative session.

State Senate approves spending cuts despite protests from educators

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Ignoring the protests of some Kentucky educators, the Senate passed a measure late Wednesday that would cut spending across state government to shore up the state’s Medicaid budget.

The state Senate voted 24-12 to approve its own version of House Bill 305 after a more than hour-long debate. The move sets the stage for a high-stakes standoff between the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House during the waning days of the legislative session.

The Senate version of the bill includes a 0.525 percent spending cut in the first year and 2.26 percent cuts in the second year of the budget, which begins July 1. Postsecondary and K-12 education would not be cut in the first year but would face reductions in the second year. That cut would be about 1.3 percent for K-12 education.

The proposal would bring a $6.7 million cut to the University of Kentucky’s budget next year, the equivalent of an additional 3.5 percent tuition increase, said President Lee T. Todd, Jr.

“Cutting education, in my judgment, is not the path to prosperity or even real savings,” Todd said in a statement. “It would represent a step backward. We need to be moving forward as a state together.”