Child Care Workers’ Pay Is Not Enough
Child care plays a critical role for ensuring families can work and helping children get a healthy start to their...
Analysis
New Report Shows Kentucky Child Care Assistance Continues to Fall Short
Kentucky’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) has one of the lowest income eligibility thresholds and has among the highest co-pays for parents among state child care subsidy programs, according to...
Even Big Cuts to New Teachers’ Pensions Would Do Little to Address System’s Funding Challenge
Even if the state were to massively cut pension benefits for new teachers, it wouldn’t result in meaningful savings to the teachers’ retirement system over the 30 year period needed...
Report Shows Quality Childcare is Out of Reach for Kentucky Families
A new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows child care is a heavy burden on Kentucky families’ pocketbooks, reiterating the need for more child care assistance in the...
New Data Shows Kentuckians with Third-Highest Student Loan Default Rate Among States
New data shows that Kentuckians leaving college with student loan debt have among the highest default rates in the country, a problem stemming in part from the rising cost of...
Eastern Kentucky the Big Winner in Insurance Gains, but Rise in Poverty Shows Work to Be Done
New Census data released yesterday showed Kentucky led the nation in its drop in the share of people who are uninsured. More detailed Census data released today shows it’s in...
The Low-Income Kentucky Workers Who Would be Harmed by a Federal Tax Credit Cut
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) help hundreds of thousands of low-income working Kentuckians make ends meet. These tax credits have been shown...
Indiana Approach to Medicaid Expansion Limits Access to Needed Care
The “Indiana model” for Medicaid expansion has recently been held up as a possible alternative for Kentucky, with supporters arguing that Medicaid recipients should have more “skin in the game”...
Pension Needs Far Exceed Likely Revenue Growth in 2017
The state needs to find $580 million more to make its actuarially required General Fund contributions to pension plans in the first year of the next budget, according to information...
Don’t Trust the Unemployment Rate: Coal Counties Edition
Kentucky is celebrating its drop in unemployment rate, which at 5.2 percent as of July is hovering at a level not seen since 2004. But since the unemployment rate doesn't...