Legislative leaders have been critical of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in recent years on issues ranging from student performance to transportation problems and budget shortfalls. In response to these issues, lawmakers have filed a number of bills this legislative session that would take power from the publicly elected JCPS school board, including by shifting authority to the superintendent (SB 1), having board members appointed by the Louisville mayor according to party registration (SB 114, which also applies to Fayette County), and splitting JCPS into two or more districts (HB 11).
However, not mentioned as part of these criticisms and proposals is that for nearly two decades the General Assembly has been cutting the state payments that flow to JCPS through the core per pupil funding formula, known as SEEK. While the state has required the JCPS board to shoulder more of the cost of funding the schools, some lawmakers now want to take away their authority to govern them.
Failure to keep up base guarantee and follow law on transportation funding has led to big cuts to JCPS
The legislature created SEEK in response to the 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that declared school funding unconstitutionally inequitable and inadequate and reaffirmed that it is the responsibility of the state to fund public education. SEEK is the state’s core school funding formula. It provides a guaranteed minimum amount of base funding per student with funding responsibility divided between the state and school districts. The formula also includes add-on amounts for transportation costs and the number of students with various special needs.
In 2008, the state provided $265 million in SEEK payments to JCPS. Eighteen years later in 2026, that number had declined by $32.7 million to $233 million. That’s a cut of $186 million or 43% from where SEEK funding for JCPS would be if 2008 levels had simply kept up with inflation. On a per-pupil basis, the inflation-adjusted decline is 45%, as shown in the graph below.
Jefferson County has higher property wealth than most other districts so it pays a larger share of SEEK costs locally than poorer districts. But that doesn’t mean the state’s contributions should decline. There are two main reasons SEEK payments to JCPS have fallen.
First, the guaranteed base amount of SEEK funding is determined by the General Assembly and lawmakers have failed to adjust the base to keep up with the increasing costs of education. This failure, coupled with Jefferson County’s property wealth growing faster than other areas of the state, has resulted in particularly stark reductions in the state portion of JCPS SEEK funding.
Second, the General Assembly has not followed the law since 2004 requiring full state funding of school transportation. By 2026, the cost to JCPS is $13.8 million annually.
Draft House budget would make it far worse
As introduced, the House budget would make this problem far worse. State SEEK payments to JCPS will fall another $25 million by 2028, leaving them $57.8 million below what the state contributed 20 years earlier. On an inflation-adjusted basis, that’s a loss of $223 million to the district. As shown below, the per-pupil decline counting inflation is 58%.
Legislature wants to take power from board but has shifted funding responsibility to it
Reducing the power of the locally elected board of education in Jefferson County is a common theme of the bills introduced in the legislature. But that board’s decisions are more important than ever when it comes to whether JCPS has the dollars to pay teacher and school personnel salaries and provide a quality education. Lawmakers are considering ways to take authority from the officials that have been increasingly handed responsibility for raising the funds the district needs.
