Lexington Democrat Chad Aull echoed colleagues on his side of the aisle in questioning whether the product would be sufficient to make Kentucky competitive on teacher pay -- a top priority of the Beshear administration.
"This budget's failure to keep up with such competitive measures in other states places our education system at a risk of losing valuable talent and expertise, which would result in an even worsening teacher shortage," the representative said/
Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chair Jason Petrie argued increases directed toward school transportation, school resource officers, and other education asks amounts to a significant investment.
"Just the increase under House Bill 6 on these items, and there are others... $1.356 billion dollars," Petrie said. "This is one of our primary areas of budget concern by General Fund and what we appropriate federally. It is well-supported."
Republicans argue the best strategy right now is to increase per-pupil funding and encourage districts to provide teacher raises. Democrats argue districts will still fall short.
The debate represents a relatively early step in a long budgeting process, which will head to the Senate next — with a final version being hammered out by a conference committee composed of House and Senate leaders.
