With eye toward FCPS, school financial transparency bill gets bipartisan support
It’s not just Republicans seeking more transparency on school district spending.
Senate Bill 3, a priority bill from Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, would significantly increase public access to a school district’s financial information. It passed unanimously with GOP and Democratic support out of the Senate Education Committee Thursday.
Under the bill, key financial documents, including budget proposals, monthly financial reports, vendor payments and credit card statements would be required to be published on a school district’s websites.
A subtext in this push is Fayette County Public Schools budget woes.
Since May 2025, FCPS has been grappling with budget problems, prompting stark criticism from state lawmakers and the community. While the working budget won’t get voted on until September, officials have also said at a January school board meeting that further cuts are expected for the 2027 fiscal year.
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, told the Herald-Leader after the committee vote that he’s “totally in support” of Senate Bill 3.
“When you’re talking about public dollars financing a public institution, the public should know how that budget is constructed, follow it throughout the entire working process, and have a say in its final approval,” Thomas said. “Now, the final approval is going to be by the board, but the public should always have a say throughout the process in structuring the line items, the appropriations and how the money is going to be spent.”
Superintendent Demetrus Liggins has also said plans are underway to review further program cuts and possible redistricting.
Meanwhile, Jefferson County Public Schools, which is Kentucky’s largest school district, has to grapple with a $188 million budget deficit.
Senate Bill 1, another marquee education bill from Senate President Pro Tempore David Givens, R-Greensburg, also passed through committee on Thursday, though some Democrats pushed back against it. Givens’ bill would delegate long-term strategy, fiscal oversight and performance monitoring to school boards while superintendents would oversee day-to-day operations, personnel, transportation and administrative management.
In the discussion of Senate Bill 3, some proponents have called back to allegedly excessive expenses made by FCPS in recent years such as a $6,900 trip to Australia and $52,000 in hotel expenses at the Louisville Galt House.
FCPS has provided a document to media and community leaders with justifications for those expenses. The Australia flight cost extra due to a delay caused by an emergency situation at a school.
The hotel expenses provided “an opportunity for our campus principals to avail themselves of the national speakers at the KASA conference and familiarize themselves with statewide changes for the upcoming year.”
Though Thomas and other Democrats supported the bill, that doesn’t mean there was no political element involved.
Laura O’Brien, an Oldham County resident and proponent of the bill who accompanied Tichenor to speak about it, said that she gathered information on FCPS, but then moved on to home in on expenses from school districts that stood against 2024’s failed constitutional amendment to allow for public funds to help fund non-public and charter K-12 schools.
“That sort of snowballed into me asking other districts about their credit card receipts, and I primarily focused on districts that were anti-school choice,” O’Brien said.
She cited the recently ousted leader of Berea Independent Schools, who left after the district was found to be in a significant shortfall. She said citizen oversight of expenses like hotel charges could have flagged the problem sooner.
“Had we caught this sooner, maybe we could have saved taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars,” O’Brien said.
