I saw news about Fayette County Public Schools laying off employees due to budget issues. How bad is the financial situation, and will this affect classroom sizes next year?

It's pretty serious. The district discovered misreported finances going back to at least two thousand eight, and Superintendent Liggins said the information provided to the school board was just incorrect, and he's committed to addressing these financial issues once and for all.

So what kinds of cuts are they making?

The good news for classroom size is they're not cutting teacher or paraeducator calendars at all. The reductions don't impact the number of teachers who serve students directly in the classroom. But more than one hundred sixty people district-wide will lose some pay with days cut from their calendars - that's things like front office staff, transportation dispatchers, and they're also reducing district-level staff through layoffs and position eliminations.

That sounds pretty tough for those families.

It really is. One employee estimated around one hundred people at Central Office were terminated, and they're also cutting hours for librarians and child nutrition workers. The underlying problem is bigger though - twenty-five years of declining state education funding, plus inflation and the end of federal pandemic money. Fayette County will only get about two million more in state funding this year, which equals a three point seven million dollar cut when you factor in inflation. So your kids' class sizes should stay the same, but the support around those classrooms will definitely be tighter.

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