Watch All Shows Victor Davis Hanson Tony Kinnett Daily Signal Signal Sitdown

Watch All Shows Victor Davis Hanson Tony Kinnett Daily Signal Signal Sitdown

Home – Kentucky Politics & News – New Kentucky Audit Shows Why Families Need Education Freedom

New Kentucky Audit Shows Why Families Need Education Freedom

Kentucky State Auditor Allison Ball’s recent report on Jefferson County Public Schools should alarm every taxpayer and parent in the state. Not only because of the report’s contents, but also because JCPS is the state’s largest school district, serving 1 in 7 students in Kentucky.

The audit not only highlights the dire financial situation the district has put itself in but also shows weak oversight, academic decline, and a culture in which staff said they feared retaliation.

In 2024, lawmakers passed House Bill 6, which mandated the audit of JCPS. The audit wasn’t limited to reviewing financial statements from July 2022 through June 2025; it also covered district operations. Auditors interviewed staff and families, reviewed board meetings, conducted school visits, and benchmarked JCPS against peer districts. What they found was sobering.

The district is spending more than it is receiving.

Every JCPS working budget from 2022 to 2026 shows expenses exceeding revenues, resulting in a $295 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2025. According to state law, districts must maintain a 2% balance of their total budget, but JCPS is projected to fall into a negative balance by fiscal year 2028 unless major cuts are made.

Despite an influx of $500 million of COVID-19 federal relief funds, JCPS began running a deficit in fiscal year 2022, with some district finance leaders reporting that the “dollar value of contracts for some existing investments ballooned after the infusion of........

© The Daily Signal