Kentucky School Advocate
May 2024
Staff report
This fall Kentucky voters will be asked whether they want to allow public money to go to nonpublic schools, potentially opening the door to charter schools, educational opportunity accounts and school vouchers. HB 2 places a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters whether the state should pay for the “educational costs of students…
who are outside the system of
common (public) schools.”
After its initial filing in late January by Rep. Suzanne Miles, R-Owensboro, the bill sat for nearly six weeks without a hearing. Then, on March 11, the ballot measure suspending seven sections of the Kentucky constitution was quickly and with little warning pushed through two committees and three readings of both chambers in less than five days. Miles cited extensive bill review by LRC staff attorneys as the reason for the timing.
Because the ballot measure was not attached to any program, House Speaker David Osborne limited discussion on the House floor about what could happen if the amendment passes.
Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, who carried the bill in the Senate, argued that the bill didn’t specify how the money would be used.
“All this bill does, is it gives the people of Kentucky the ability to do what most other states have done in the education space, and have been doing successfully for many years,” he said.
KSBA Executive Director Kerri Schelling said the amendment is concerning.
“Because there is no companion enabling legislation attached to it, we are given no clues as to what the potential public funding of private education might look like,” Schelling said. “That should concern those charged with the governance and operation of our public schools.”
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said that 72 of the state’s 120 counties do not have private schools so funding nonpublic schools would take money from those counties and “give it to some other place outside your county, unaccounted for.”
The bill passed 66-31 in the House with several Republicans with public education experience or connections voting no, while the Senate voted 27-8, mostly along party lines. Constitutional amendments do not go to the governor for signature or veto.