KY teachers' union, education groups raise alarms about House budget bill proposal

Valarie Honeycutt Spears, Lexington Herald-Leader on Feb 15, 2026

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A Kentucky teachers’ union and public education groups on Sunday raised alarms about a GOP House budget proposal, with one group warning it would cause teachers and bus drivers to leave their jobs..

The Fayette County Education Association and the public schools advocacy group Protect Our Schools posted statements in opposition to the proposal, House Bill 500, and the advocacy group said it was hosting an online “urgent call to action” meeting at 8 p.m. Monday.

The warnings come after Kentucky’s top personnel official warned lawmakers in a letter Wednesday that the bill would have a “devastating impact” on pay for more than 310,000 state workers, dependents and retirees.

“I promise you if this bill becomes law, your children’s teachers and bus drivers will leave. Many won’t have a choice. I ask you again, who’s going to teach your children?,” Allison Slone, founder of another education advocacy group, Kentucky Teachers in the Know, wrote on Facebook over the weekend.

The bill would put in place a 5% cap on employer health plan contributions per year for members of the Kentucky Employee Health Plan, according to a Wednesday letter to Kentucky lawmakers from Personnel Cabinet Secretary Mary Elizabeth Bailey. About 6.8% of all Kentuckians are in the KEHP program, Bailey said.

Bailey warned that such a cap would lead to a funding shortfall for the plan, in turn leading to increased premiums — up to 78% over the next two years — or decreased benefits for state employees.

The group Protect Our Schools, in a Facebook post Sunday, called the bill an “all-out assault on public education in Kentucky.”

In addition to putting in place caps on employer health plan contributions, the group said, the bill sidesteps pay raises, cuts school bus funding and freezes state funding for public schools.

When lawmakers introduced the bill, sponsored by Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, they stressed that it was a first draft and subject to change.

The bill has been sent to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.