KY School Facility "Needs"...Nearly $1 Billion!

90,000 of Kentucky’s kids are in schools that are labeled as “deteriorated.”

According to KDE, there are 1,197 school buildings in the Commonwealth. Of those, there are 142 ‘Category 4’ and 16 ‘Category 5’ facilities. Quick math tells us that 13.2% ofKentucky’s school buildings are in a “deteriorated” condition.

90,000 children – 158 buildings – how did we ever get to this point? Are we not prepared to invest inKentucky’s future by ensuring our children are attending satisfactory schools?

The needs are significant. According to KDE, the total “needs” for all 1,197 schools – notwithstanding what category they are in – is $951 million. (We're working on tallying the "needs" for Category 4 & 5 schools but this should suffice for today).

The General Assembly has demonstrated a willingness to make funding available to meet these needs. In FY 2006–2008, the legislature authorized $150 million for capital construction assistance to local districts. In the FY 2008–2010 budget, the legislature authorized $200 million (though $100m of this is an authorization to commit to projects for the 2010-12 biennium with a commitment for future bonding authorization in the next session).

So - $350 million for school facilities. Maybe not enough to get everything done right away but not an insufficient sum either.

Except there is this one little problem. Of that $350 million – about $35 million isn’t going to go towards improving our children’s schools.

What? How can that be?

Next – we turn to this little thing called … the prevailing wage.