The House budget freezes school transportation funding and makes small increases in the guaranteed base funding level used to determine payments to school districts under the SEEK formula. Though the current House Budget is an improvement from the initial version, an estimated 82% of school districts would still receive lower SEEK payments in 2028 than they did in 2026 once inflation is taken into account. That would continue a 20-year trend of eroding state funding for public education.
SEEK is the core funding formula for schools that provides a guaranteed minimum amount of base funding per student with funding responsibility divided between the state and school districts. The formula accounts for district property wealth with the state providing a larger portion of funds to poorer districts in recognition of their relative lack of local wealth to tax. The formula also includes add-on amounts for transportation costs and the number of students with various special needs.
While the SEEK formula decides how much is allocated between school districts, the amount of money available to distribute through the formula is based entirely on choices made by the General Assembly — including whether to set the SEEK base guarantee at a level that meets the cost of providing a high-quality education and whether to follow the legislature’s own laws on funding for the transportation of students.
The House’s budget, HB 500, suspends the law that requires the state to fund 100% of the cost of school transportation (a law that has been suspended in every budget for more than 20 years). The House proposal funds only 81% of these costs, an amount that is $93 million a year less than what the law would require.
HB 500 increases the SEEK base per pupil guaranteed from $4,586 to $4,626 in 2027 and $4,792 in 2028. That’s an increase of 0.9% the first year of the budget and 3.6% the second. But this budget would not make up ground on the erosion of SEEK funding due to inflation: the SEEK guaranteed base was $3,822 per student in 2008, which is $6,197 in 2028 dollars. The House budget’s 2028 SEEK guaranteed base is 23% less than it was two decades prior.
The combination of frozen transportation funding and a small increase in the SEEK guarantee affects districts differently depending on local factors, including expected trends in property values and student population. But in most districts, it is not enough money for state payments to keep up with growth in inflation, which is projected at 2.8% in 2027 and 2.3% in 2028 in the official state forecast. In total:
See the photo attached for KyPolicy’s estimated changes in state SEEK payments the Lee County School District in the House budget using projections of SEEK parameters developed by the Department of Education for the budgeting process.
Non-SEEK payments to school districts are also an important part of school budgets but are not included in the photo. For example, funding for preschool, extended school services like afterschool programs and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers are also frozen in the House budget.
Source: KyPolicy analysis of Kentucky Department of Education data. Payments include base SEEK plus add-ons, transportation, and the enhanced Tier 1 match of 17.5%. Estimates use projections for SEEK parameters developed by the Kentucky Department of Education for 2027 and 2028. Local effort includes the required 30 cent plus local Tier 1 match. Inflation estimates are from the Consensus Forecasting Group official estimate. Table omits Cloverport Independent due to anomalies from its virtual school.
Info via Kentucky Policy by Jason Bailey
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here