Kentucky lawmakers continued their push for reforms in public school leadership Thursday as two priority bills move to limit administrative pay increases and require a new principal training program. Both passed the Senate education committee with unanimous approval.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly has not been silent on its dissatisfaction with Kentucky’s public schools, especially its largest urban districts. Now that efforts to use state dollars to pay for private or charter education have largely fizzled out, lawmakers are focusing on increasing accountability in schools they argue have underperformed for a long time.
Kentucky students have failed to make up much ground since the pandemic — more than half of all Kentucky students continue to score below proficiency in reading and math across all tested grade levels, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.
Senate Bill 2 would require that school administrators and superintendents not receive percentage pay increases greater than those conferred to classroom teachers. Senate Bill 4, meanwhile, would provide training opportunities for new school principals in a partnership with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
Lawmakers also ok'd a bill to require all local school board members get six hours of finance training every two years — a clear nod to the financial issues that have plagued Jefferson County and Fayette County Public Schools.
“We have a stewardship responsibility. We have a constitutional responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars. Fifty to sixty percent of our general fund budget goes to education,” said GOP Sen. Stephen West of Paris. “This is part of that process, making sure the dollars are well spent, making sure kids receive a high quality education, and we think these bills help.”
West, who chairs the Senate education committee, is sponsoring SB 4. He said it will be accompanied by a budget request for the training program. The goal is to “put our money where our mouth is,” he said.
Education funding is often a contentious topic, as Democrats call for more funding and Republicans arguing they already provide record levels. The proposed GOP budget undergoing review in the House would keep steady the per-pupil funding formula spending level over the next two years.
Democratic Floor Leader Sen. Gerald Neal of Louisville has frequently criticized state education spending, saying it has not kept pace with inflation. He said Thursday the state needs to do more, but that the bills they were voting on are a “step in the right direction.”
“My concern is that we have not sufficiently funded our school systems and hold to that,” Neal said. “I think we're going to have to do something bigger, at least, in my opinion, in addition to this, to make sure that we fully fund our system.”
Lawmakers have shown increasing frustration with the state's largest school districts in Louisville and Lexington. Both have faced significant budget shortfalls.
The set of education accountability bills filed this year particularly target administrators and school boards. A bill that already passed the Senate would limit the powers of the Jefferson County Board of Education in favor of the superintendent — language essentially identical to that struck down by the state Supreme Court in December. Another on its way to the House after passing the Senate would require information about public school budgeting be made more accessible on school websites.
Tying administrator pay to teachers
Sen. Julie Raque Adams, a Republican from Louisville and sponsor of SB2, says the bill’s goal is to prioritize teacher pay above “anything else that we do.” Under the bill, superintendents and administrators would not be able to receive a percentage pay increase bigger than the average increase for classroom teachers in the district. Before doing so, districts would need to get a waiver on a case-by-case basis.
“It reinforces fairness in compensation practices across school systems, and it reflects the value of classroom instruction in district level decision making,” Raque Adams said. “What this bill does not do? It does not eliminate local control over compensation decisions.”
However, Sen. Stephen Meredith, a Republican from Leitchfield, said he had concerns about the bill from the perspective of a rural district or school that wants to retain thriving administrators, and can’t wait around for a waiver to provide a needed raise. Meredith said school success is often reliant on the principal, and rural systems need to be able to hold on to talent.
“If you've got great talent in a rural system, you want to keep that talent. I'm concerned that we're going to limit ourselves in our ability to do that,” Meredith said, although he voted in favor of the measure.
GOP Sen. David Givens from Greensburg said he believes the bill puts a good mechanism in place to allow for those standalone pay raises with more transparency.
Training for principals
A Rand Corporation 2025 survey found that 17% of surveyed teachers ranked lacking support from their schools’ administrators as the top stressor in their job. West said wanting leadership inside of schools is contributing to teachers leaving the classroom and the reason he wanted to standardize training opportunities for new principals in Kentucky schools.
Senate Bill 4 would create a mandatory 5-year training program for first-time Kentucky principals to teach them both the nuts and bolts of the job and leadership skills. The first two years would be handled by the Kentucky Department of Education and the last two years would be handled by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
“This is a framework,” West said. “The ultimate goal is to have the premier principal leadership program in the United States.”
The chamber has already run a principal leadership program since 2011 that President and CEO Ashli Watts told the committee has trained almost 700 principals since its inception.
“They are being able to be trained like the executives they are, and in turn, come away as better principals, better leaders, better community leaders, all to the benefit of the teachers, the schools and of course, ultimately, the students of Kentucky,” Watts said.
Watts and West said they hoped that, through state investment, they would be able to expand the program to roughly 150 principals in each cohort, tripling the existing program. West said he intends to request $2.25 million for the first and second year of the program.
“Theoretically, it's built like a stair step,” West said. “If you're comparing it to the army, it would be more like year one and year two, basic training, year four or five, more officer training — just a higher skill set.”
