Statement on Updated House Budget by The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence
Feb. 25, 2026
Contact: Lisa McKinney, Communications Director, The Prichard Committee
(cell) 859-475-7202
lisa@prichardcommittee.org
Statement on Updated House Budget by The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence
LEXINGTON, Ky. — We are encouraged to see improvements in SEEK and transportation funding in this version of House Bill 500, while continuing to advocate for transportation funding at the full level called for in statute.
At the same time, we are concerned about continued reductions in state investment in child care and even deeper cuts to higher education.
We appreciate the inclusion of Read to Succeed funding in this version, but the same level of commitment to strengthening early numeracy is not yet evident. We hope the state’s Numeracy Counts investment will be included in the next version of the bill to maintain our focus on both literacy and mathematics. A full analysis of this version of the budget will be available on prichardcommittee.org.
The Prichard Committee believes in the power and promise of public education –early childhood through college– to ensure Kentuckians’ economic and social well-being. We are a citizen-led, non-partisan, solutions-focused nonprofit, established in 1983 with a singular mission of realizing a path to a larger life for Kentuckians with education at the core.