We passed a state budget that invests $4.5 billion in General Fund dollars in each fiscal year in Kentucky classrooms. This includes $130 million to fund full-day kindergarten, $274.5 million in transportation funding, salary supplements, and $7.4 million to support school-based mental health programs. This also includes increasing the Base SEEK guarantee to a record high dollar amount of $4,100 in the first fiscal year and $4,200 in the second fiscal year. To clarify, when we talk about SEEK, we are essentially referring to the amount each district receives per pupil. This means every dollar SEEK is increased translates into an additional investment of $800,000 in public school districts.
These are investments that go directly into the hands of local school districts that employ our Kentucky teachers. We are providing districts funds they can use to address their individual needs and that includes providing teacher raises. Because we recognize each individual district’s needs are different, we are passing down the resources for them to make the decision of when, where, and how to provide teacher raises as they see fit. While mandating local districts give pay raises might have been good politics, it would have been bad policy. Classroom teachers, aides, guidance counselors, cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, school administrators, and others who serve in our schools are employed directly by districts. Instead, we provided local districts with an additional $525,882,000 in the first year of the budget and even more in the following year. Consider that a 1% pay increase for all school employees statewide would cost an estimated $47 million and you can see that we appropriated more than enough for districts to both provide raises and address other priorities.
At the same time, we are making a commitment to our teachers by fully funding the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System at the actuarially required contribution rather than only what is required by law. The statutorily required contribution would be $438 million, but this budget allocates more than twice that amount—an estimated $1.067 billion in the first year and $1.084 billion in the second year. This means we are providing $629 million in the first year and $646 million in the second year more than what is required by Kentucky law.
In addition to meeting and exceeding our pension obligations, we are also fully funding the state portion of health insurance for retired teachers under the age of 65.
It is no secret that our workforce in Kentucky has taken a hit over the past two years, and our schools have been some of the hardest affected. Due to a shortage of teachers, a number of school districts throughout the state struggled to keep kids in the classroom throughout the pandemic. The state's placement website has listed nearly 5,000 open teaching positions so far in 2022, yet the number of undergraduate and graduate students choosing to pursue careers in education dropped by more than 20 percent this past year. That is why we made it a priority this session to not only support our existing educators, but to also provide resources and remove barriers for the next generation of teachers on their career path.
Among our efforts to recruit and retain new teachers throughout the state, we are providing $1 million in each year of the budget for a scholarship program through Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA) to ease the financial burden for students pursuing teaching careers. We also establisheda new pathway for recruiting potential teachers outside of the education field through an expedited teaching certification program. To further support these students on their career path, we are getting student teachers in the classroom sooner by eliminating an unnecessary requirement for duplicate background checks.
As always, I can be reached through the toll-free message line in Frankfort at 1-800-372-7181. Feel free to contact me via email atMichael.Pollock@lrc.ky.gov. If you would like more information, please visit the LRC website www.legislature.ky.gov.
State Representative Sarge Pollock