Education is a fundamental building block of all communities; Warren County is no different. Our community depends on dedicated teachers to build the next generation of skilled professionals. Educators’ responsibilities involve imparting technical knowledge, fostering critical thinking, developing verbal and written communication abilities, and teaching students how to work with people from a variety of cultures.
Warren County possesses a number of advantages: a growing population, cultural diversity, strong businesses and a large university. Strong public schools have played a key role in making these things possible. Warren County resident Joyce Adkins has seen these advantages firsthand: “My oldest grandson is in the gifted and talented program, and he has had some excellent opportunities to be really challenged at Warren East High School. He had to have excellent teachers to challenge him and help him reach his full potential.”
Gifted and talented programs, Advanced Placement courses, arts offerings, and opportunities for national and international travel are available to our youth. Businesses know we have an educated workforce, and their employees feel confident about relocating here.
All of these could be at risk, however, if we continue to slash education funding and adopt Governor Bevin’s pension proposal. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that Kentucky’s general funding per student at the P-12 level is 15.8% less than it was in 2008. This means we’ve had less and less money to support our students every year, and if we don’t do something soon, our schools will be forced to make tough decisions about the important services they can continue to offer.
In August, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the Commonwealth invests 26.4% less in each college student than in 2008. Far from ensuring a stable and dignified retirement for teachers and other state employees, the measures coming from Frankfort would lead to economic uncertainty and great costs for students as well as taxpayers.
We must invest in our schools at every education level, “so that children can receive the education they need to succeed in life,” said Kenny Colston, communications director for the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, in the November 29 th edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Citing the same Center on Budget and Policy Priorities data, he went on to claim that “With looming pension obligations, this report is once again evidence of the need to clean up the tax code of special interest loopholes to help Kentucky reinvest in our state’s schools, among other needs.”
Our state legislators need to reform Kentucky’s outdated tax structure. We leave billions of dollars on the table each year in tax expenditures. The Kentucky Forward Plan would modernize our tax code to create more revenue to guarantee our public schools teachers have access to resources needed to educate our students, which will in return build a strong local community. The Kentucky Forward Plan closes tax loopholes and asks more of corporations and those that have the most to give in order to raise the revenue we need to support our schools and our local economy.
Professors and students alike are concerned that college students cannot focus on academics when they have to work full-time to survive. Young people cannot invest in our community when they are saddled with student loan debt. Our best educators will be lured away by states that forgive loans, pay better salaries, and provide stable pensions. The people and industries we spent so many years trying to attract will go with them.
Our elected officials need to reform Kentucky’s outdated tax structure to provide funding that will help grow our community. The Kentucky Forward Plan does just that— and it does so fairly. Please go to www.kftc.org/issues/kentucky-forward-plan to learn more. Then, call your representative and senator (502-369-2815) and urge them to support it.