There was something odd about a statement issued in July by Kentucky’s Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher.
In the 2024 session, the legislature directed State Auditor Allison Ball to conduct a special examination of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). The Auditor’s investigation was set to be released last month. Fletcher’s statement hit my news feed, I read it, and my radar went off.
Why? The statement was issued before the auditor’s report was made public, like some sort of prebuttal.
Its substance was odd too. Fletcher first thanked KDE staff for cooperating with the Auditor’s Office. Then, he previewed that the report would show that employee morale was high at the Department.
So, his staff did their jobs and felt good about it. I suppose that deserves a pat on the back.
Auditor Ball’s 466-page report is a serious document. It’s a comprehensive, apolitical analysis with dozens of findings and recommendations. Some are relatively minor; others reveal serious problems. Two deserve particular attention.
The lion’s share of state funding for public schools is provided through the SEEK formula. According to the auditor, an average of $3 billion has been appropriated for SEEK each of the last four years.
The amount of SEEK funding is based on estimates. The career staff tasked with making those estimates are very good at their jobs but it’s impossible to be perfect.
During the four years covered by the report, $251 million in excess SEEK funds accumulated. When that happens, KDE is authorized through the budget bill to reallocate those dollars to other education-related areas. The report found, however, those funds were allowed to lapse back to the budget reserve trust fund at the end of each year.
Kentucky’s superintendents and teachers’ unions complain endlessly that education is underfunded. Therefore, it’s hard to understand why the surplus funds weren’t repurposed. Did KDE’s financial team not know those big balances were there? Or did management not know they had the authority to shift funds around? Neither explanation is good.
The second troubling issue relates to the state’s Board of Education, which hires the Commissioner and is supposed to set the strategic objectives for Kentucky’s public schools. On the latter point, it’s not doing its job.
Consider two observations from the investigation: “The Board’s goals are not measurable or actionable, nor do they appear to inform Board activity” and “Board meetings do not sufficiently focus on student performance on state or national tests.”
The lack of actionable goals and inattention to student performance are inexcusable deficiencies. Both sit at the feet of the Board and Commissioner.
When asked about the auditor’s report, Gov. Andy Beshear said, “(KDE) is an independent agency, which alone has the authority to control its own programs and regulations.” Answers like that explain why Republicans in the General Assembly have such little respect for Beshear.
On his first day in office, Beshear disbanded the Board, reorganized it and appointed new members. It’s undergone legislative changes since then, but everyone knows that the Governor’s office has great sway with it. Don’t think for a minute that Robbie Fletcher didn’t need a thumbs up from Andy Beshear himself to get the Commissioner’s job. That’s just the way things work.
Last January, Commissioner Fletcher went public with his concern of a $40 million funding shortfall during the current year. Republicans in the legislature were skeptical.
Within weeks of Fletcher raising the red flag, Beshear announced he’d found $14 million to fix the problem. The General Assembly didn’t appropriate any additional funds and the remaining shortfall never materialized.
In a statement for this column, Rep. Kim Banta R-Ft. Mitchell, who chairs the House budget subcommittee responsible for K-12, said, “even the most well-designed funding model cannot function properly without accurate, timely data…the Kentucky Department of Education must take meaningful steps to improve its data collection and reporting processes so the SEEK formula can be applied as intended.”
Credibility is everything in the legislative process. Commissioner Fletcher bluffed while holding a weak hand and was forced to fold. He should start repairing the damage from his misstep by using Auditor Ball’s report as a roadmap to focus KDE on their top priority: educating Kentucky’s students.
Andrew McNeill is the president and senior policy fellow at the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE). He served as senior policy adviser and the deputy state budget and policy director in Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration. His email address is amcneill@kyfree.org.