Rep. David Floyd (R-Bardstown) fired the shot that could well be remembered as the first one in the battle to bring true reform to Kentucky education with his bill (HB 999) mentioned here yesterday.
Today from his office in Bardstown, Rep. Floyd said that his purpose for filing the bill was indeed to start the conversation about how we should finance our public education system. He also explained that he intends to revise the language in the bill that would mandate 62% of the state budget to go to education costs. The revision will simply add "no more than" prior to the number 62%, setting a ceiling on the portion of the budget that can be eaten up by Big Education. This is a good thing and will allow us to get off the bi-annual demands for more and more tax money for schools. That way, we can turn our focus to changing our approach to education rather than fighting about whether to throw more and more money at it.
In the current budget, the state spends 60.6% of its entire budget on education expenses.
