The Kentucky Department of Education is predicting a “funding shortfall” of about $40 million in state support for local school districts.

In a weekly letter to colleagues released Tuesday afternoon, Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher wrote that KDE is predicting the shortfall for funding in the 2024-25 academic year, after “a detailed review of preliminary data.” 

“KDE is currently tracking an estimated SEEK shortfall of $12 million for funding to public school districts provided in Kentucky statutes,” Fletcher wrote. “KDE estimates an additional shortfall of $28 million for funding to public school districts that is specifically conditioned on the availability of funds.” 

The SEEK formula, or Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, determines the amount of state funding to local school districts. The formula has a base per-pupil funding allocation, along with additional funding for factors like transportation costs or the number of students in a district who qualify for additional resources like special education, free or reduced-price lunch and English language assistance.

Fletcher wrote that a SEEK shortfall previously occurred four times between fiscal years 2010 and 2014. 

“Since the 2017 fiscal year, the Commonwealth’s SEEK budget included more funding than was ultimately payable to districts as required by the SEEK formula,” Fletcher said. “During the 2021 fiscal year, there was a $231,000 surplus in SEEK appropriations. During the last fiscal year, there was a $156.3 million surplus in SEEK appropriations.”

To determine estimated costs for each biennial state budget, KDE works with the Kentucky Office of the State Budget Director “to gather data projecting property values, public school enrollments and student special populations” as lawmakers consider the budget, Fletcher wrote. 

The state budget director’s office in November predicted that Kentucky’s general fund revenue will decline by $213 million or 1.4% in fiscal year 2025. Some Republican lawmakers have questioned the projections and noted that actual revenues are up a bit through the first five months of this fiscal year.

Fletcher added that KDE is currently working with the state budget director and chairs of the General Assembly’s Appropriations and Revenue committees, Republicans Rep. Jason Petrie and Sen. Chris McDaniel, “to explore funding options that may address this estimated shortfall and minimize impacts to Kentucky’s public schools.” 

Lawmakers met earlier this month to begin their 2025 legislative session and will return to Frankfort in February. The House already has approved a reduction in the state income tax rate from 4% to 3.5% and the Senate is expected to quickly follow suit.

“These shortfall numbers are only estimates now and are subject to change in the upcoming weeks as the department completes final SEEK calculations,” Fletcher said. “State law requires KDE to complete final SEEK calculations by March 1 of each year. KDE will provide information to school districts regarding the impact to individual districts as soon as those final calculations are complete. While we know this estimated shortfall is critical to our public schools, it is important to keep in mind that it represents 1.43% of our overall SEEK funding of $2.7 billion.” 

The SEEK formula was established by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, but questions around school funding have been raised recently.

Last week, students on the Kentucky Student Voice Team filed a lawsuit against the state for failing to provide “an adequate and equitable public education.” Among claims in their suit, the students say eroding state financial support for school districts has made the inequality gap even wider than it was before 1990. KSVT’s data came from sources such as KDE, the federal government, and a data analysis from the progressive think tank Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

However, Republicans in Frankfort have argued they are funding schools at record-levels. At the Kentucky Chamber Day Dinner earlier this month, Republican House Speaker David Osborne criticized “people that have not provided one single, substantive, creative, thoughtful, intentional policy change to improve education” and said that “asking for more money is not big. Asking for more money is not bold. Asking for more money is just an ask — and it’s not working.” 

Kentucky has 171 public school districts. 

A Ku Klux Klan group – advertising a Maysville, Kentucky, “national office” and chapters in Ohio, Kentucky and three other states – is distributing election-themed literature in Northern Kentucky.

The Ludlow Police Department posted a copy of a flyer on its Facebook page on Monday afternoon, with the headline “Leave Now. Avoid Deportation.”

“We are aware and have already taken one report for this disturbing and disgusting propaganda that is being passed around our community,” the police post reads. “This hateful garbage has been turning up in other cities as well.”

Officials in Fort Wright and Bellevue said in social media posts on Monday that such flyers have also been located in their communities.

“While other communities have also been targeted with this type of material in the past, to our knowledge, this is the first time our community has had this type of disgusting material distributed,” Fort Wright Mayor Dave Hatter said in a statement.

“Council, Staff, and I are outraged and dismayed that this has occurred in our community. It is especially appalling that it happened on Dr. Martin Luther King Day,” Hatter added.

The flyers hit just as Donald Trump took office on Monday, having earlier promised “mass deportations” of persons in the United States without legal immigration status.

Police to seek criminal charges for ‘despicable flyers’

According to Ludlow Police Lt. Greg Eastham, the Ludlow Police Department received a call from a Deverill Street resident just after 10 a.m. Monday about what he called “these despicable flyers.”

In a press release, Ludlow officials called the flyers “racist propaganda” adding that they “do not support nor condone this hateful garbage.”

“If we can identify the responsible parties, we will seek criminal charges against them,” the press release said. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has identified 1,430 such groups across the country, including several dozen in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

The police release also acknowledged that unless the flyers cross “the threshold of a criminal matter, they are still protected under the First Amendment.”

‘Report them all,’ flyer advises

The flyer features an image of Uncle Sam, kicking a retreating family of four. In his hand, the Uncle Sam figure holds a “proclamation” with the words “mass deportation in 2025” and “report them all.”

Under the image, the Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan offers applications and memberships for $1. It lists “realms” in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, with individual phone numbers and an invitation to “call the nearest realm for more information.”

The Ohio number goes directly to voice mail. A recording, in a male voice, says “In January, the world’s going to change for a lot of people, especially the immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.” (Springfield found itself in the national spotlight last fall as false rumors spread that residents of Haitian descent were eating pets.)

“But nothing’s going to change for the Ku Klux Klan and the Trinity White Knights,” the recording continues. “We will always secure the existence of our people and future for white children.”

The Kentucky number also goes to voice mail.

“Come stand with us and help fight against illegal immigration, homosexuality and every other form of wickedness and lawlessness,” the recording on that line says. “We hope to hear from you soon. You have a great white day of white power.”

The same flyer has turned up in several Indiana communities, according to multiple news outlets.

Ludlow police ask residents with information about who is disseminating the flyers to call the department at 859-261-8186.

Five games into league play, Kentucky has a foul problem.

The No. 9 Wildcats are committing far too many of them in SEC games and are not drawing many of their own, leading to a major free-throw discrepancy.

On Monday during his weekly radio call-in show, UK head coach Mark Pope said the staff has spent “an insane amount of time” trying to find solutions.

“We’ve gone back and tried to categorize every type of foul that’s been called on us over the last five games, and we’re seeing some trends where we can really, really aggressively attack and make some strides,” Pope said.

The UK staff has a good opportunity to make adjustments this week as the Cats have an “open date” of sorts with no mid-week game. Their next game will come Saturday at Vanderbilt.

“As we did a sweeping review, kind of with video and analytics on the fouls, we found some trends that are really important,” Pope said. “I’m not going to talk about those publicly because I’m sure that Vanderbilt is watching right now. (laughs) But it has given us some real direction, and I think there’s a good chance that we have a chance to make some massive improvements.”

Kentucky (14-4, 3-2 SEC) boasts the No. 2 offense in the nation at 89.2 points per game and also ranks second in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency rankings, but the Cats are doing it without the benefit of the so-called “charity stripe.”

Pope’s squad currently ranks No. 151 nationally in FTA/FGA rate. That also puts them eighth in the new 16-team SEC.

Even more alarming is the staggering pace that league rivals are parading to the line. Kentucky ranks last in FTA/FGA defensive rate during conference play. In their two losses, the Cats have watched as Georgia and Alabama combined to shoot 72 free throws while they attempted only 39.

Overall, SEC opponents have attempted 150 free throws to Kentucky’s 113.

The shortcoming has contributed to UK losing two games in which it made more baskets than the opponent. In the case of Saturday’s 102-97 loss to the No. 4 Crimson Tide, the Cats won almost every statistical column with the exception of trips to the line.

Pope, who is in his first season at Kentucky after spending the last five at BYU in the Big 12 and West Coast Conference, says it has taken some time to adjust to the way games are called in the rugged SEC.

“You talk about learning this league and learning the whistle,” he said. “That’s a genuine thing. There are times when, internally and externally, I lose my mind with some of the officiating, but the truth is that usually, when you go back and watch the film, the officiating may not be what you’re used to or how you would correlate things with the book, but there is some things in the consistency of the officiating that, while it may be surprising to us, it’s teaching us a lot.”