What does it cut?: Education

The House’s talking points around their own budget proposal focus on the crumbs they delivered, but people want to know what the budget cuts.

Last week we posted about the shell games that the House played to "balance" the budget.  This week, we're posting about what those shell games sacrifice. Education, family services, health services--all are impacted by cuts and inadequate revenue.  

 This post focuses on how the budget impacts education.

Cuts to K-12 education

The House has said that education was mostly spared, and that they trimmed cost by cutting two school days from the calendar.  But this is more complicated than just letting summer breaks start two days earlier.  Take a look at this list, a selection from the Pritchard Committee, which describes some of the cuts that our students will feel next year.  These cuts include:

• $56 million from the base educational funding by cutting two days from the school calendar.


• $21 million from textbooks. 


• $3 million from grants for programs to help children learn to read.
  


• $2 million from school technology.


• $1.7 million from family resource and youth services centers. These are the small but busy centers in schools that link families with resources that help children.  If a child needs glasses and his parents can’t afford them, for example, the people in these centers will help his parents find a way to get glasses for their child.  If a child has outgrown their winter coat before her parent can afford another one, these folks help her parents figure out how to get her a coat.  Especially as family services have been chronically underfund, these little centers are vitally important to kids.


• $1.5 million from preschool.  Past budgets have tried to spare preschool funding because the benefits of preschool are so tangible and universal.  The cuts to preschools are a sign that even legislators know that they've most certainly hit the marrow.


• $512,000 from the schools for the blind and the deaf.


• $412,000 from programs to strengthen weak schools.


• $264,000 from extended school services, the after-school programs to help kids who need a little extra help to succeed.  These have already endured significant cuts in past budgets. 

Cuts to adult education

"Adult education" is a bit vague, and doesn't really do justice to the scope of services offered.  Here are some of some of them:

• They help people become citizens by offering classes to people trying to learn or improve their English.

• Their family literacy programs help children and parents strengthen their reading and writing abilities together, as a family.  Now why in the world would we make this program less possible?


• Classes to help people prepare for their GEDs.  This raises an important point.  House leadership has been saying the adult education was cut so drastically during this budget because it hasn't been cut in previous budgets.  But the effect of other cuts, to KET and community and technical colleges, as well as local cuts to public transportation, have meant that people trying to get their GEDs have faced many obstacles as a result of lack of revenue reforms.


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  Once people do get their GED's, navigating the transition from GED graduate to higher ed can be difficult, but increasingly necessary for a good, stable job.  According to the Kentucky Adult Education website, the percentage of GED graduates who went to college went from 12% in 1998 to 21% in 2008.

The impact of these cuts will be significant, and our investments in adult education are already well below the national average.  According to a new report from MACED called Investing in Kentucky's Working Families Key to State Prosperity (MACED's report is incredible in scope and usefulness, and deserves a post to itself), for every adult without a high school diploma or a GED, the state invests only $48 every year on adult education.  This is far below the national average of $66, even though more than half of Ketnucky adults have basic or below basic literacy skills.

Cuts to higher education

The House budget hands higher ed a 2.5% cut over the next two years.  What does this do to tuition?  On average, tuition for in-state students at state universities has gone up 10% a year for the last decade. 

Below are some of the state schools' tuition increases over the last five years, between the 2004/2005 school year and the 2009/2010 school year.  Note that during the same time, inflation has only been 18%, and salaries and pay haven't kept pace with even that.

NKU:  55% increase               EKU:   64% increase

MSU:  57% increase               UK:     57% increase

UofL:  58% increase               WKU:  57% increase

Community and technical colleges: 36%

Here's another sobering percentage:  According to MACED's Investing in Kentucky's Working Families report, 47% of people who apply for need-based financial aid are denied, despite meeting financial aid guidelines. That's 45,000 students.

These are just the cuts to education.  Health and family services, environmental safety, public safety--all are being compromised because our legislators aren't providing leadership to move Kentucky forward with real solutions and reforms. 

The budget bill is now in the Senate. Stay tuned.