Kentucky Education Policy Blog

 Exactly a year ago, Governor Beshear and members of the General Assembly were beginning the work on what was billed as an "education first" budget.  Unfortunately, the pandemic interfered with the budget process and Kentucky-- like all other states-- went into fiscal survival mode.  Flash forward one year, the Governor and legislature have an opportunity-- despite the continuation of the pandemic-- to move forward with a budget that focuses on adequate funding of public schools.  While both the Governor and Republican controlled legislature will be touting education as a priority in this budget session, it is worth closely examining what an "education first" budget really means.  To really understand, we need to explore the debate about the idea that money really matters in education.  One of the most deceptive strategies of education reform over the past 20 years has been to sow doubt about the importance of school funding.  The approach has been adv...

  Adequacy funding in education is one of the defining education policy issues of the past 50 years. Since the economic downturn in 2008, shortfalls in state revenues have led to widespread reductions in state education budgets bringing adequacy arguments back to the forefront.  The attached link is a preprint of a case study that examines two states-- Kentucky and Kansas-- and compares the evolution of the politics and policy of adequacy efforts as an approach to education finance prior to and since 2008. The study is based on a white paper that I published for the Kentucky Superintendent's Association in 2019 and research that I conducted while studying education policy at Johns Hopkins University in 2018.   It is kind of a sad fact that challenges of adequacy funding have not become outdated.  Access the preprint here:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340953009_Case_Study-_Education_Fiscal_Policy