Kentucky’s local school facilities are in crisis!
According to the Kentucky Department of Education Division of Facilities Management, more than 90,000 children attend K-12 classes in school buildings in poor condition. See more at The Kentucky Department of Education.
Besides the unsafe conditions these facilities present to our children, a national non-profit agency, 21st Century School Fund, cited research that found “…the quality of a school facility has an impact on student experiences and ultimately on their educational experience.” The group also found that buildings considered in poor condition “…are obstacles to academic achievement…” and schools with outdated facilities could have a detrimental effect on educational achievements among minority and low-income students.
What needs to be done?
Due to the current economic crisis, every tax dollar must be better utilized and better spent. The “Better Schools = Better Students” initiative seeks to address Kentucky’s pressing need to renovate and build state-of-the-art schools for our K-12 students at an efficient cost to taxpayers.
An independent study by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (LRC) found that Kentucky’s prevailing wage, enacted more than 70 years ago, added an additional 21 percent to the cost of the labor component of public construction projects. A separate study by the Kentucky Department of Education, determined that over just a few years the prevailing wage inflated the costs on school construction projects by nearly a half-billion tax dollars, almost equal to current need for category 4 and 5 schools.
“At a time when money is very tight everything should be on the table; that includes the prevailing wage,” said Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine, (R)-Southgate. “Our children deserve for us to make every effort to stretch our tax dollars as far as we can extend them.”
To illustrate the effect on a local level, an additional $1 million was added to the cost of the new elementary school in Wolfe County, and more than $4 million was added to the cost of constructing a new school in Fayette County. That equated to an additional $1 million to the cost to build a new elementary school in Wolfe County, and more than $4 million in additional local and state tax dollars to construct a new high school in Fayette County.
“Better Schools = Better Students” believes that during a period of economic crisis all tax dollars must be spent in the most efficient manner.
If you support better education in our state, support “Better Schools = Better Students” by calling your legislator and letting them know it’s time to explore better cost solutions that will provide all of Kentucky’s children a safe, secure learning environment. Write a letter or call in support of SB145 with the sample here.
