FRANKFORT, Ky. — Full-day kindergarten funding was approved during last year’s legislative session, but only for a year. There’s bipartisan support for extending it this year, but lawmakers pulled the measure at the last minute Thursday night.
What You Need To Know
- House Bill 66 would make full funding of kindergarten permanent
- Lawmakers approved a year of full kindergarten funding last year, but the issue is being negotiated again as part of the budget
- Democrats have said Republican leaders are holding up funding to get charter school legislation passed
The bill making full funding permanent, House Bill 66, was pulled from the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee meeting at the last minute Thursday night.
“This is a process up here,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. James Tipton (R-Taylorsville) said. “And sometimes things happen very quickly, and sometimes things happen and we don’t understand why, but I’m still very hopeful.”
Tipton said money for full-day kindergarten could take shape in either his bill or the two-year budget, but he’d prefer if they made it permanent.
“That would certainly be my hope and goal that we do this going forward,” he said. “I think it helps local school districts to know with certainty that those funds are going to be there so they can make the plans for their budgets for the future.”
Tipton’s bill, according to a fiscal note produced by the Legislative Research Commission, would cost $242 million over the next two years.
Some Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear, have said Republican leaders are tying the issue of full-day kindergarten to funding for charter schools.
“If someone is threatening not to include funding for five-year-olds and their education to get something else, it’s absolutely wrong,” Beshear said Thursday. “There have to be some lines, right? It feels like every line is crossed. There have to be some lines.”
Nearly every school district had full-day kindergarten, but the state only funded half of it until this year after lawmakers approved full funding during the last regular session.
Tipton said he was hopeful they will resolve the issue of full kindergarten funding this session, regardless of the charter school debate.
“To me, there’s no intermingling; there’s no negotiation. I support both of those measures,” Tipton said. “Again, there are other people who are making these decisions in leadership, trying to come up with the ultimate, final product, so I’m hoping we’ll get there very soon.”
The charter school bill, House Bill 9, is still awaiting a committee vote in the Senate.