Parts of the Senate budget plan are good news:
- All-day kindergarten funding meets the full Ask in both House and Senate versions.
- Public universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System funding meets and exceeds the Ask in both versions, including performance-based incentive funding.
- CAP (College Assistance Program) scholarship dollars similarly meet and exceed the Ask in both versions.
- K-12 school transportation funding meets the Ask in the House version and mostly does so in the Senate version.
- Teaching quality efforts included funding for the Read to Succeed initiative begun in 2022 and for added stipends to teachers who earn National Board certification.
Other parts raise concerns:
- Teaching quality efforts do not include either broad or targeted efforts to rebuild funding for professional development, leaving most of the quality portion of Big Bold Ask unanswered.
- CCAP (the Child Care Assistance Program) reflects increases that are valuable and yet too small to address Kentucky’s long-term need for early childhood opportunities that prepare children for future learning and too small to meet the immediate challenge of avoiding a sharp reduction in child care access for low-income children and their working parents.
- Preschool receives no added dollars, the only portion of the Ask with no added investment at all since FY 2020.
Here’s a chart version of those Big Bold Ask elements, showing both House and Senate versions of the budget for FY 2026 (the second year of each chamber’s two-year spending plan).[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”23554″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1710421934506{padding-right: 15% !important;padding-left: 15% !important;}”][vc_column_text single_style=””]For readers interested in other specific programs or in a fuller view of education spending, here are the newest versions of our overviews for early childhood, K-12 learning, and postsecondary education funding.
The House Committee Substitute and Senate Committee Substitute versions of House Bill 6 are the original sources for this analysis, and those who love detail may want to take a look at those, too.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]