KENTUCKY — On this week’s ‘In Focus Kentucky’ program, Kentucky’s 39th state Treasurer, Mark Metcalf of Lancaster in Garrard County, is our guest.

Before his election as treasurer in 2023, Metcalf practiced law for 38 years as a private practitioner, state and federal prosecutor, and as a judge on the U.S. Immigration Court in Miami, Florida. The Republican was selected as Kentucky’s Outstanding County Attorney in 2013 for his work as a special prosecutor and for one of the highest DUI conviction rates in the state. 

During this segment, Treasurer Metcalf explains how his office and the Kentucky Financial Empowerment Commission​ work together to provide resources and supporting Kentucky educators who teach financial literacy.

“What we’re doing now, and this is one of the things that I’m very proud of doing, is that we’re putting branch banks and branch credit unions into high schools, giving kids their first opportunity at a job dealing with customers, dealing with deposits, and dealing with people’s savings. And we’re trying to put these in as many high schools as possible. I’ll give you an example: Southern High School in Jefferson County has sustained the confidence of the faculty, the staff and the Jefferson County School Board, and the Commonwealth credit union. So we’re doing a lot of things that we think will in the long run, gain acceptance across the state, and hopefully that will be a model for other high schools,” said Metcalf.

The treasurer also details in this interview some of the legislative requests he’s asking of the General Assembly.

“We’ll be asking the legislature to assist us in aggregating a database that includes criminal victims restitution awards, but that will enable us to do is when that database is complete, we’ll be able to make awards from the Unclaimed Property fund, we’ll be able to check not only unpaid taxes, not only child support, but we’ll also be able to pay a crime victims restitution from that fund. And what we will try to do is get the Lottery Commission to buy into that, so when they pay winnings out to winners, we will be able to not only withhold taxes, child support but also hate crime victims as well, their restitution as well."

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.