Kentucky School Advocate

December 2024

By Josh Shoulta

Staff writer

Kentuckians cast votes for president, congress, state House of Representatives, nearly half of the Commonwealth’s school board seats and many other races on Nov. 5, but it was one of the two questions on the back of the ballot that captured statewide and even national attention. 

While the presidential race was not called until the early morning hours of Nov. 6, the outcome of a constitutional amendment allowing lawmakers to send public money to private schools was a foregone conclusion before 9 p.m. ET. An overwhelming majority of Kentucky voters rejected the amendment by a margin in 65% to 35%.

“The Kentucky School Boards Association appreciates that voters have chosen to preserve the language and spirit of our constitution that ensures tax dollars are used exclusively for our public schools that are bound by law to serve any students who enter their doors,” KSBA Executive Director Kerri Schelling said. “It is our hope that all stakeholders – families, educators, local leaders, state policy makers – will prioritize discussion of how we continue to improve educational outcomes for Kentucky students, 90% of whom are being educated by our public schools.”

The amendment, on the ballot as Amendment 2, asked voters whether they were in favor of “enabling the General Assembly to provide financial support for the education costs of students in kindergarten through 12th grade who are outside the system of common (public) schools.” In other words, should lawmakers have the power to direct public funds to private schools? To do so, the amendment asked voters to suspend seven sections of Kentucky’s constitution. 

School board members were uniquely positioned to help voters understand the vaguely worded amendment. They just needed the right tools. 

“KSBA focused on developing turnkey resources for school board members to inform their communities about the amendment and its potential impact,” Schelling said. “It was an effective information campaign because our members were really passionate about the issue.” 

The vote tally and the 65-35 margin against the amendment were both strikingly similar to Kentucky voters’ selection for president, Donald Trump. The margin of defeat for Amendment 2 was also comparable to the margin of victory for Amendment 1, which enshrined in Kentucky’s constitution a prohibition on noncitizens voting. These correlations could be seen as a reflection of strong bipartisan opposition to granting lawmakers authority to direct tax dollars to nonpublic schools. 

Members of the Warren County Schools and Bowling Green Independent Schools boards of education gathered at Fountain Square Park in downtown Bowling Green on Oct. 30 to express their personal opposition to Amendment 2 and to take questions from the media. County-level data demonstrated an even greater landslide defeat of the amendment. None of Kentucky’s 120 counties voted in favor of Amendment 2. Only one county, McCreary, came within a single digit margin. Many rural counties, in both eastern and western parts of the state, rejected the amendment by a wider margin than the overall state margin and some at an even greater margin than Kentucky’s most populus county, Jefferson.

In a September KSBA survey of school board members, 62% of respondents said they felt a majority of their community members were opposed to Amendment 2. That early perception mirrored election results. 

For months leading up to Nov. 5, Kentuckians had been bombarded with messaging by well-funded groups on both sides of the issue. Proponents billed the amendment as a means of greater “school choice” that would help “fund students, not systems.” Opponents warned that the amendment’s passage would open the door to vouchers and give lawmakers “a blank check.” 

Record spending for and against the amendment hit roughly $16 million by the end of October, more than doubling money spent on Kentucky’s 2022 abortion amendment. Much of the money flowed in from out of state groups, ranging from national education organizations (in opposition) to a Pennsylvania-based billionaire (in support). The surge in cash resulted in a steady flow of television and online advertisements, mailers and signage while debate over public funds for private schools earned frequent attention in local and statewide news. 

Both sides benefitted from backing by some of Kentucky’s highest elected officials and their respective political action committees. Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman publicly opposed the measure while Sen. Rand Paul campaigned in support. 

Despite more than 650,000 Kentuckians participating in early voting, final numbers fell short of expectations. According to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office, two million registered voters participated, a 58.86% turnout compared to 61.4% in 2020. 

After the election, reactions flooded in from statewide groups for and against including lawmakers, education advocates, board members and superintendents. 

Protect Our Schools Kentucky, the statewide coalition opposed to the amendment, said the results sent a clear message.

“Kentucky voters have decisively rejected Amendment 2, reaffirming our Commonwealth’s commitment to public education for all,” the group said in the statement. 

Kentucky Students First, which supported the amendment, said in a statement that its resolve to serve students over systems was unchanged, despite the outcome.  

“Though the results may not have been in our favor, this campaign has been a powerful force for standing up to the Kentucky education bureaucracy,” the group said. 

Owensboro Independent Schools Superintendent Wendy Duvall said the amendment’s defeat was a “huge victory” for public education in the state. 

 “It is clear that Kentuckians value public education and they want to see our legislature do more to serve our children in public schools,” she said. “Now, we will move forward and work with our legislature to ensure Kentucky students are receiving the best education possible.”

Before the vote, Bowling Green Independent and Warren County Schools held a joint press conference to explain the board members' and superintendents’ opposition to the amendment. After the vote, Bowling Green Independent Superintendent Gary Fields said the vote shows support for public education. 

“I think it’s a sign that many people in the state of Kentucky value the job that public schools do for the kids of this state,” he said, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. “They also, I think, have an understanding that there needs to be more work done by the General Assembly to fund public schools before we go down the road of taking public funds and using them for private schools.”

Outgoing Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, attributed some of the blame for the amendment’s defeat to his party’s unwillingness to actively support it. 

“The (Republican Party of Kentucky) did not ever really engage despite the fact that it was a priority bill of our legislative supermajority,” Thayer told the Kentucky Lantern. “But it’s hard to change the Constitution. That’s the way it is.” 

Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence President and CEO Brigitte Blom, whose organization released research in opposition to the amendment, urged policymakers to remain focused on student success. 

“Now that the citizens have spoken, it is the responsibility of state and community leaders to ensure the direction forward is one that supports our common goal to continuously improve outcomes in education and quality of life that rival any state in our nation,” Blom said.

Sen. President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, was asked about future education legislation in the wake of the amendment’s defeat.

“You will see attempts to look at poorly performing school systems and see how we can help those poorly performing school systems,” he said. “Public has spoken. They’ve said they don’t like that pathway. So, we’re going to look at other pathways to have accountability and performance in poorly performing school districts.”

The 2025 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly will begin in January. 

Kentucky was not the only state that put public education on the ballot in 2024. Here are three other examples* of major education issues that were left in the hands of voters. (*Ballot language and election results as taken from the respective secretaries of state websites.)

Ballot language: Colorado voters were asked, “Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution establishing the right to school choice for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, and, in connection therewith, declaring that school choice includes neighborhood, charter, and private schools; home schooling; open enrollment options; and future innovations in education?”

Intent: Colorado’s Amendment 80 proposed to enshrine “school choice” in the state’s constitution. Similar to Kentucky’s Amendment 2, the amendment did not enact any legislation and the broad wording of the amendment provided little detail as to the legal or legislative ramifications. 

Results: Voters rejected the proposed amendment with 50.68% voting No and 49.32% voting Yes. The outcome was not as close as it appears, however, as Colorado law requires 55% minimum approval for passage of amendments that add language to its constitution. 

Ballot language: Florida’s Amendment 1 proposed “to require members of a district school board to be elected in a partisan election rather than a nonpartisan election and to specify that the amendment only applies to elections held on or after the November 2026 general election.”

Intent: The amendment proposed to change Florida’s constitution to require members of local boards of education to be elected in partisan races. Races are currently nonpartisan. 

Results: The amendment failed to receive the minimum-required 60% approval for passage, with 45.1% voting No and 54.9% voting Yes. 

Ballot language: “Section 1 of Legislative Bill 1402, enacted by the Nebraska Legislature in 2024, provides for $10 million annually to fund education scholarships to pay all or part of the cost to educate eligible students attending nongovernmental, privately operated elementary and secondary schools in Nebraska. Shall Section 1 of Legislative Bill 1402 be repealed?”

Intent: Tens of thousands of Nebraskans signed a petition for a statewide referendum. The resulting ballot measure asked Nebraska voters to either retain or repeal Legislative Bill 1402 passed earlier in 2024 that established publicly funded scholarships/vouchers for some families to pay for private education. 

Results: Voters rejected the legislation with 57.03% voting to repeal it and 42.97% voting to retain it.