School choice amendment does not change how Kentucky schools are funded
10/20/2024
Amendment 2, coming up on the November ballot, asks voters to change the state constitution clarifying that lawmakers may, at some point in the future, pass legislation providing support for eligible families to access new educational opportunities. This is a response to a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that prohibits any support, no matter how small, for students outside of traditional public schools.
Opponents of Kentucky’s Amendment 2 falsely claim that if passed, millions of dollars will be drained from the state’s public schools. But the actual wording of the amendment, Kentucky law, and previous court cases all make it clear that no such thing will happen.
Kentucky voters have sent pro-educational choice legislators to Frankfort over the last few election cycles. This resulted in multiple educational choice programs passing the Kentucky General Assembly. Unfortunately, Kentucky’s Supreme Court issued an unprecedented decision barring all support for students outside of the public school system.
The only recourse for voters is to pass Amendment 2. It makes clear the General Assembly can support all students when it comes to education. Further, the word “notwithstanding” is used to ensure that activist judges do not strike down innovative education programs via creative legal reasoning.
Amendment 2 does not create any program by itself, nor does it change the way Kentucky’s public schools are funded.
Amendment 2 leaves in place various constitutional provisions protecting public school funding, including Section 186 which prohibits the public school budget from being diverted to other purposes. Nothing within Amendment 2 will allow SEEK dollars, which are the per-pupil funds allocated by the state to public schools for educating students, to be used to fund school choice.
School choice funding will have to come from the state’s general fund and be a line-item allocation in the biennial budget, just like a road project, veterans’ hospital, funding for public universities, and other initiatives that require public investment.
Of course, opponents of Amendment 2 don’t claim road projects or universities siphon money from public schools. Neither should they claim that school choice will use public school funding.
If Amendment 2 is passed, lawmakers may consider a wide range of school choice policy options, including charter schools or privately funded education opportunity accounts, both of which have already been previously approved by the state legislature only to be struck down by activist judges claiming to the state constitution forbids such programs.
Whatever policy mechanism lawmakers eventually choose, the funding for these programs will come from somewhere other than the state education budget, while growing the access of Kentucky families to a wider range of education options.
Kentucky is one of the only states where school choice programs are prohibited by the courts. Amendment 2 simply changes that, giving lawmakers the chance to consider programs that give every family the same kind of privilege affluent families practice and enjoy every day: the right to pick the learning environment that best meets their child’s needs.
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