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Posted on 01/10/2004 6:06:18 AM PST by toddst
FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher rushed yesterday to defend his $6.9 million of cuts in elementary and secondary education funding to help balance the state budget, saying the action would cause a minimal amount of pain.
But House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said he had assumed from Fletcher's earlier statements that the new Republican administration was planning "to make cuts only in fat and waste. This is not fat and waste."
The cuts, ordered on Monday, will reduce the money available for such programs as early childhood development, technical and career education, family resource centers, gifted and talented programs, and training for teachers.
Fletcher called an impromptu news conference yesterday with Education Secretary Virginia Fox to try to calm concerns about the cuts.
"We wanted to make sure the cuts were taken in places where we felt there may be the least pain involved," Fletcher said. "Clearly we have inherited a budget crisis not of our making, and we're doing the responsible thing. We still are keeping our commitment to KERA (the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act)."
The reductions in education spending are part of a larger 2.5 percent current-year budget cut that Fletcher has ordered across state operations. The stated goal is to generate $100 million in savings this fiscal year that could go toward covering a projected $300 million revenue gap in next year's state budget.
Fletcher said yesterday that he allowed state agencies "total discretion" in making the cuts, except to tell the Education Department to protect reading programs and the $2.2 billion in basic school funding known as Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, or SEEK.
Fox said that the individual cuts in the education areas ranged from 1 percent to 3 percent. "It came up to be an average of 2.5 percent."
"All these programs are discretionary for schools," she said, referring to ones where funds were reduced.
She called the cuts "relatively small" in comparison with the state's $3 billion overall budget for elementary and secondary education.
"All that we ever promised to protect was the SEEK program," she said.
Fletcher said the cuts did not violate campaign promises to spare education funding. He said he has no plans to reinstate the funding just cut from this year's budget in the proposal for the next two fiscal years that he'll present to lawmakers on Jan. 27.
House Speaker Richards and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, both said they learned of the specific cuts in the media and not from the Fletcher administration.
Williams said he wanted to find out the "impact of the cuts" before commenting on them. "I will not be reticent to communicate with this administration if I believed they have erred," he said, adding that Fletcher "doesn't have to consult with me on everything he does."
Richards said he prefers that Fletcher inform him of major policy decisions. He said he particularly was concerned about cuts in family resource centers. "That's really harmful. People in education will tell you that."
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This stuff falls under "fat and waste" in my opinion!
10-4. Governor Fletcher is also cutting heavily the university budgets - and it's fat also. He is going exactly where Kentucky needs to be.
You are correct IMO. Governor Fletcher is going the "cut government spending" route well before a revised tax code is proposed. I believe Kentucky is about to become a trend-setting state in many respects. Boy have we needed this!
10-4. I look for this to come up in the about to begin legislative session. Watch the labor slugs and their minions whine and cry! Their protestations will be music to my ears.
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