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Executive Insights

#RoseAt30: Honoring the landmark decision

Kentucky School Advocate
May 2019

By Kerri Schelling
KSBA Executive Director

Where does the time go? Every year seems to go by faster, which may be why anniversaries are important to me. Anniversaries mark key moments in time, and whether they remember a positive or negative event, they serve as a chance to reflect on where we have been and how far we have come. On June 8, we will have such an opportunity when the Kentucky Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Rose v. Council for Better Education turns 30.

Commonly referred to as the Rose decision, this opinion affirmed it was the fundamental right of every child in the Commonwealth to receive an adequate and equitable education and invalidated Kentucky’s existing system of public schools because its K-12 governance and financing did not provide what the Kentucky constitution required. With the entire system declared unconstitutional, the court ordered state lawmakers to start over, paving the way for sweeping changes we know as the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA).

When it was enacted, KERA became the most comprehensive overhaul of public education the nation had ever seen. Among other things, it called for higher standards, improved accountability, professional development, more technology, increased funding and a fairer allocation of resources. Preschool education for at-risk 4-year-olds and children with disabilities became a statewide reality, Family Resource and Youth Service Centers were created and Extended School Services were implemented.

While the majority of KERA was designed to provide equal educational opportunities for all Kentucky’s children no matter where they reside, it also addressed the Rose decision’s requirement that “an efficient system must also be sufficiently funded, free of waste, supplication, mismanagement, and political influence. …” As a result, KERA introduced financial changes, including a new funding allocation formula called Support Educational Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) to balance available state dollars among local school districts and governance changes that were intended to help depoliticize education. These included the recreation of a state board of education comprised of members appointed without reference to occupation, political affiliation or similar considerations, and a hired commissioner of education instead of an elected superintendent of public instruction.

Without question, the Rose decision set in motion a clear direction for the future of our common schools. It clarified that the General Assembly has sole responsibility under Kentucky’s constitution to provide adequate funding and that this obligation cannot be shifted to local counties and school districts. Yet despite this mandate, the state’s contribution has fallen far below its pre-recession level of a decade ago and many districts now fund almost half the cost of educating students – not because of a legal obligation but because of a moral one.

To help commemorate the Rose decision and its directive that our students deserve a public education system based on adequate and equitable funding provided by the state, KSBA and other stakeholder groups known collectively as KEAT (Kentucky Education Action Team) are collaborating on a social media campaign to highlight key quotes from the decision. Look for them every other Monday throughout 2019 or search using the hashtag #RoseAt30.

Thirty years ago, Kentucky took historic steps to improve educational opportunity and academic achievement for our youngest citizens. Other states followed our lead and, while KERA may not have been perfect, it set the high water mark for what public education reform could be. The Rose decision was the turning point that spawned a bipartisan effort rooted in the belief that Kentucky’s success would be built on the foundation of a strong system of common schools. If the General Assembly can embrace that commitment again, imagine where we will be when Rose turns 40!