LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In its current composition, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is able to raise the highest amount of funding from property taxes in Kentucky. The district is then able to split up the money however it's needed to have equitable resources across the county.
This week, Kentucky lawmakers in both houses filed a resolution to evaluate the efficiencies of JCPS and consider if splitting up the district would lead to better student outcomes.
If the district were to be split up, it would have to be done in an equitable way to avoid serious funding issues across the county.
“Children that live in property poor districts receive a lot less resources than children that live in wealthier districts," Pam Thomas, a senior fellow at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said.
The center is a think tank to comment on and research various legislation in Kentucky. Before she worked there, Thomas was a nonpartisan staff member in the Appropriations and Revenue Committee from 1991 to 2016. She was responsible for explaining the Supporting Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) formula to lawmakers.
“The increase in the base SEEK funding, when you take inflation into account, has actually decreased since the 1990s," Thomas said.
SEEK is meant to equalize property poor districts with property rich ones. Thomas said over the last several years, lack of investment from the legislature has shifted more burden to the local districts.
To participate in SEEK, districts have to levy at least a 30% property tax. Many districts elect to levy higher taxes than that.
In Jefferson County, the district got an estimated $303 million from its 30% property tax, and $191 million in net base SEEK funding for fiscal year 2024, according to Kentucky Department of Education estimates. In the rural Meade County School District, the district generated $6.6 million from a 30% property tax, and got $21 million in net base SEEK funding.
"The local governments in those areas are less able to raise money with the same effort," Thomas said.
JCPS sent FOCUS a more complete picture of its school funding, showing the additional property taxes and occupational taxes it levies in the county. In total, the district got $908 million from local taxes in fiscal year 2023 and $486 million in total state funding.
Because property values are higher in north and east Jefferson County, if a new district was formed and not able to access those taxes, Thomas said their revenue would start to look more like a rural county.
“Well, absent more overall funding by the General Assembly bringing the base funding up, what would end up happening, likely is the property-poor districts in Jefferson County would suffer the same fate as the property poor districts in the rural parts of Kentucky, which is, that they would lack the capacity to generate revenues locally," Thomas said. "And if the state contribution doesn't increase significantly, then they're going to be worse off than they were before in a larger district.”
No one has attempted to redraw potential new district lines, but it could be done in a way to offset historic racial segregation lines in Louisville.
This is not a foreign concept in JCPS, as the elementary school clusters are drawn in a way to draw students from different sides of the county.
Redrawing lines would be a big part of the discussion, as both the Office of Education Accountability within the Legislative Research Commission and the potential task force evaluate next moves.
"There's a lot of things that I think would need to be considered in the whole process, and I can't imagine it would be done quickly," Thomas said.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.