We’ve all had the talk. The How Much AP (Advanced Placement) and IB (International Baccalaureate) Tests are Going to Cost This Year talk. It usually begins with feverish praise of whatever we had for dinner and usually ends with a lot of sighs as a triple digit number pops up on the TI84. The Kentucky Legislature started the talk , but they never finished it.
In 2008, the our Commonwealth’s General Assembly enacted KRS 160.348 (3): “Effective with the 2008–2009 school year and thereafter, students enrolled in AP or IB courses in the public schools shall have the cost of the examinations paid by the Kentucky Department of Education.” But to this day, full funding for the statute to be realized remains unallocated.
The weight of the buildup of unfunded mandates ultimately falls on the shoulders of local school districts. Across the Commonwealth, the narrative remains the same: “You end up going an inch deep and a mile wide, and you are not able to fund priorities, which are our classrooms, ” Oldham Superintendent Will Wells said in the Courier-Journal in 2014. In Oldham County alone, unfunded mandates, combined with cuts in state funds, cost the district $7.1 million dollars . With unfunded mandates becoming the new norm in education policy, it’s not a matter of if, but when local school districts will break under the pressure.
The Kentucky Department of Education is also feeling the pinch. With the recent unavailability of federal grants to fund AP and IB testing for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, the Kentucky Department of Education will assume responsibility for these costs, which are estimated to total around $800,000. Without the work of Commissioner Pruitt to ensure this funding, the strain from unfunded mandates would have been even more pervasive across the Commonwealth.
In this past year, 49,960 AP exams were taken by students in Kentucky by 30,796 students. What’s deeply troubling is that only 7,466 students took advantage of fee waivers and reductions, though many more were eligible for these benefits.
In looking at the current state of the local school districts, the Kentucky Department of Education, and individual students, it’s evident that the missing piece is accountability. The continual shifting of responsibility and paperwork perpetuates a vicious cycle of inefficiency and inequity. Lawmakers need to know that we do not accept partial credit when it comes to legislation.
Let’s finish the talk.
