House Bill 1 (HB1) is a comprehensive bill outlining the state budget for 2022. HB1 highlights include:
- Increases the SEEK per pupil guarantee base amount, from $4,000 to $4,100, and then $4,200. (This is progress but falls significantly short of the $4,768 inflationary equivalent of 1990 SEEK Base.)
- Funds full-day kindergarten to help empower students from all backgrounds.
- Fully funds all required/requested contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement System for pension and retiree health.
- Increases funding for Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSCs) to reduce educational barriers facing at-risk students.
- Invests in Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding to grow the Commonwealth’s workforce and economy.
- Dedicates $100 million in SFCC assistance to remodel, remedy and refurbish our aging school facilities.
While KASS applauds state lawmakers for prioritizing education funding, our 171 superintendents representing every school district in the Commonwealth, calls on the Kentucky Senate to add three common sense, common ground reforms to HB1:
- Fully fund transportation so that students and parents can safely get to school and focus on learning rather than worrying if and when they’ll get picked up or dropped off by their school bus.
- Increase SEEK funding because we are investing less per student (indexed for inflation) currently than we did more than three decades ago.
- Give school districts more freedom by providing the much-needed resources to help superintendents ensure student success at school, work and in the community.
Go to the “How We Can Help” page to access social media posts, talking points, email and call scripts and much more to make sure your voice is heard.
