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Legislative Education Staff Network

LESN Fall Seminar
Chicago, Illinois
December 10, 2005

Status of Kentucky's Technology System (KETS) 2005
A presentation to the Interim Joint Committee on appropriations and Revenue Committee, 9-22-05

Presenters: Gene Wilhoit, Kentucky Commissioner of Education 
David Couch, Associate Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Education

In the May 05 issue of Education Week magazine, all states were rated in three different major categories (Capacity to Use Technology, Use of Technology, Access to Technology). Once our students and teachers have access to modern technology tools, they do well when compared to other states. However in the 3rd category (Access to Technology), Kentucky was ranked 27th and dropping quickly when it came to keeping our technology tools in the classroom refreshed and up-to-date. This low score in the 3rd category will have a negative impact in the near future on our success in the first two categories.

The annual KETS unmet need is $122 million per year. However, since 2001 on average only $70-75 million per year in federal, state and local dollars has been identified to address that annual unmet need. This is a shortage of close to $50 million per year. Over the past 6 years this has led to a $282 million cumulative gap in unmet need in school districts.

Seventy-five percent of our student workstations in Kentucky are 6-13 years old and are not capable of running modern instructional applications or are not reliable (i.e. break often and take a long time to find parts and repair) because of their old age.

Large-scale intentions for formative and summative on-line testing in Kentucky can’t occur with this percentage of old student workstations.

Enhancing students’ educational experience and getting them prepared for the automated workforce environment will be severely impacted with 75 percent of the workstations being 6-13 years old.

Over the past year, the proposed federal budget has significantly lowered the amount of funds that it has typically given to schools for education technology. There are even more possible severe cuts to federal technology funds for states being discussed now in Washington.

There are possible solutions at both the state level and local level that need to be considered. Raising the KETS baseline from $19.5 million to the recommended amounts (i.e., $44.5 million per year) would be a first step. The local school districts have indicated they could match a higher KETS offer of assistance with local funds. However school districts will also need to commit other local funds beyond the match to meet that $122 million in unmet need.

The four basic categories of KETS unmet need are as follows:

Category of Unmet Need	Total	Percent of Total
Operations  Maintenance Incremental Replacement New Technologies All Categories	$62 per student per year $72 per student per year $77 per student per year $3 per student per year $214 per student per year	29% 33.5% 36% 1.5% 100 %

Technology Funding Talking Points

If the technology tools are not capable of running modern instructional applications or are not reliable (i.e. break often and take a long time to find parts and repair) because of their old age, then teachers and students will stop using them in the classroom. Large-scale intentions for formative and summative on-line testing in Kentucky can not occur with a large percentage of outdated computers. Enhancing each student’s educational experience and getting them prepared for the automated workforce environment will be severely impacted as well with so many very old student workstations in the classrooms.

Since 2001, on average only $75 million (federal, state and local dollars) of the $122 million in annual unmet technology need has been purchased by school districts. Most of that $75 million is going toward "keeping the lights on" for daily operations and maintenance. Very little of that $75 million has gone toward incremental replacements. This explains the reason why 75 percent of our workstations in Kentucky are 6-13 years old and not capable of running the applications mentioned above. Over the past six years this has lead to a $282 million Cumulative GAP in unmet need in school districts. There are possible solutions at both the state level and local level that need to be considered. For example, even if the KETS baseline is raised from $19.5 million to $35-$40 million, the local school district must find $87 million in local funds to meet that $122 million in unmet need.

Of the four KETS unmet need categories, expenditures in Operations and Maintenance are absolutely necessary to sustain current levels of service. That is, if unmet need within the Operations and Maintenance categories is not addressed in accordance with program guidelines, the integrity, sufficiency, and capacity of the district technology infrastructure will degrade until services are seriously curtailed or eliminated. These include items like student workstation repair, teacher workstation repair, instructional software improvements, classroom printer repair, instructional fileserver repair, school management software improvements, initial/ongoing technology integration professional development, student technology leadership services, Internet services, telephone communications to parents, distance learning service, help desk services, e-mail services, enterprise data system access and school financial management services.

The unmet need for Incremental Replacement constitutes a framework for replacement of various technology components on a scheduled basis over time, in accordance with the life cycle of each item or service. These include items like student workstations, teacher workstations, instructional fileservers, assistive and adaptive technology, school laser printers, classroom color printers, wireless networks, student hand-held devices, high-speed fiber networks, desktop conferencing, and digital projection devices.

The unmet need for New Technologies includes products and services that are more discretionary in nature, products and services that are today only marginally available or affordable, and products and services that are perceived as needs in the planning horizon.