THE HOUSE JUST VOTED ON A BUDGET. CHECK OUT THE CHANGES

On Wednesday, February 25, the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee approved a Committee Substitute version of HB 500, the state budget for the next two years, and on Thursday, February 26, the full House approved that version in a floor vote. The bill moves next to Senate Committee revisions, but here comes a rapid look at the main Committee changes to General Fund support for learning.

IMPROVEMENTS FOR K-12 EDUCATION

Compared to FY 2026, the House Committee Substitute calls for:

• Increases to the SEEK guarantee per pupil, total state SEEK base and Tier 1 funding, health insurance, retirement, and facilities.
• Stable funding for SEEK transportation, career and technical education, and most other K-12 line items.
• New approaches to school resource officers and mental health providers that do not provide dollar totals.

SEEK base, transportation and Tier 1 are also funded better in the House Committee Sub than in the original version of the bill: a very positive step.

The bill offers no funding for Numeracy Counts, a statewide initiative to improve mathematics teaching. During the 2024 session, that effort was funded through a separate bill, but we have not seen either a separate bill or a main-budget appropriation to continue that work.

LOSSES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD

For Kentucky’s youngest learners, the House Committee Substitute shows the same reductions as the original HB 500:

• Elimination of four Child Care Assistance Program line items worth a combined $46.5 million in FY 2026. Those items included dollars to improve provider rates, help families keep care when their incomes first move above CCAP limits, and help care workers get care for their own children.
• Reductions CCAP subsidies for eligible families and to Employee Child-Care Assistance Partnerships
• No increase for preschool funding.

EVEN DEEPER LOSSES FOR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

The original HB 500 cut higher education by $163 million for FY 2027 and an additional $24 million for FY 2028. The House Committee Substitute cuts deeper: $178.5 million for FY 2027 and another $20 million for FY 2028.

Some dollars are also appropriated differently:

• The University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University take smaller cuts than in the original bill.
• The other institutions take bigger cuts than in the original, as do the Council on Postsecondary Education and the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority.
• Performance funding is the only part of higher education that did not receive cuts in either the original or the House Committee Substitute.

LEARNING MORE

Check out our complete budget summaries for each level to see changes to each program and our notes on how the changes compare to the Prichard Committee’s legislative priorities for this session.

Contact your legislators to urge them to fund child care, transportation and KCTCS here.