Kentucky lawmakers hear takeaways, ask questions on KDE audit

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FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Frankfort is still analyzing its takeaways from a $1.2 million audit of the Kentucky Department of Education.

On Monday, Aug. 18, members of the Interim Joint Committee on Education had their first opportunity to ask their own questions.

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“It’s just very vast and is, as far as anyone in the auditor’s office can remember. This is the first time a comprehensive audit like this has ever been done on the KDE,” Auditor Allison Ball said.

The 500-plus page audit, ordered by the General Assembly via legislation in 2024, notably found a $250 million lapse in SEEK funding and also said KDE lacks measurable benchmarks for gauging student success. Ball called the latter an overriding issue that comes up several times in the report.

“As you’re preparing your budgets, those areas that address those specifics, the literacy coaches, the math—we’ve got a lot in there that will help inform you on the amount of money that perhaps you want to put into those areas,” Ball said.

The audit comes as KDE prepares a new strategic plan of its own and the state legislature crafts the next budget. Senate education chair Steve West questioned whether the report’s financial findings were indicative of any larger financial issue.

“Basically, what you’re telling us is you didn’t find any, like, major glaring discrepancies in the fiscal policy or the money specifically,” West (R-Paris) said.

“We did not find big-ticket, glaring problems other than the SEEK funding. We did find areas where there were problems with budgeting. I don’t mean budgeting as in, like, money going the wrong place. I mean, the way they track their budgets,” Ball clarified.

Sen. Reggie Thomas (D-Lexington) pressed whether the audit’s findings on pre-k not promoting strong kindergarten readiness are a case for Gov. Andy Beshear’s legislative goal of universal pre-k.

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“I think your exact words were ‘we need to do some work in this area.'” Doesn’t your report make the case that Kentucky needs to follow the rest of the country now and adopt some form of universal pre-K?” Thomas asked.

“If we’re not doing a good job on that at this point, then we don’t want to expand that out to other kids. So step one would be to make sure our preschools are performing to the highest level they can be,” Ball said.

The full audit report can be found here.

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