The future of Kentucky’s education system rests in the hands of voters in the upcoming general election, as ballots will ask them whether or not they support a constitutional amendment that could divert public tax dollars away from public schools to be used at private schools instead.
Constitutional Amendment 2 poses the following question:
“To give parents choices in educational opportunities for their children, are you 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 by amending the Constitution of Kentucky as stated below?
IT IS PROPOSED THAT A NEW SECTION BE ADDED TO THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY TO READ AS FOLLOWS:
The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools. The General Assembly may exercise this authority by law, Sections 59, 60, 171, 183, 184, 186, and 189 of this Constitution notwithstanding.”
But what exactly does that mean?
Proponents of the amendment claim that voting “yes” will—most importantly—empower parents with more choice and students with more opportunity, while also allowing for higher teacher salaries.
According to www.kentuckystudents.org, a website created in support of the amendment, those claims will be met by allowing the Kentucky General Assembly to “create innovative educational opportunities that support K-12 education in addition to the traditional public school system” without raising taxes or “reducing existing public school funding.” The website also asserts that the passing of the amendment will “create new opportunities for low-income, minority and special needs students.”
However, the website does not provide any detailed information on how any of those claims would be manifested aside from a few external links to outside websites.
While information on www.kentuckystudents.org claims that passage of the amendment will not introduce a voucher system in Kentucky, opponents argue that is not true. Indiana, Florida and Arizona are among the states that already have similar systems in place, all of which allocate funding for school vouchers. For that reason, opponents believe that the implementation of school vouchers are an inevitability.
In Kentucky, public schools are funded using the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) program, that provides school districts with a set amount of money per student per year. Currently, that amount is $4,326, though it is set to increase by $200 in 2025.
John Siler, who is the superintendent at Whitley County Schools, spoke to the News Journal about the amendment not in his official capacity, but as a concerned, tax-paying citizen. Siler described the implementation of school vouchers as a fundamental “haves versus the have nots” scenario, since he said it is likely that such a system would be based around the state’s current SEEK funding.
“The term they’re using is ‘the money follows the student.’ Well, the money that follows the student right now is the base amount of that SEEK funding. So, imagine that every child that is homeschooled or enrolls in a private school, that public school no longer has that funding. How does that help teacher pay? How does that help fund public education? And the other thing is, if you look at the other 12 or so states that have this, you’ll find between 65 to 70 percent of the vouchers issued are to students that are already enrolled in a private school,” said Siler. “Once this passes, those parents that are already able to pay that private school tuition, will receive that voucher to help pay their tuition.”
If a voucher program were to be put in place, they could only be used at specific private schools that have been recognized by the state as valid educational institutions, according to Aaron Brock, a high school teacher at Williamsburg Independent School and president of the Williamsburg Education Association. These are called “certified” private schools.
In our area, that will likely create another issue, Brock added, who said there are no certified private schools within Whitley County.
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy’s website corroborates that claim. The website showed that the closest certified private school to be Cornerstone Christian School in Laurel County. The only other nearby certified institutions include: Somerset Christian School in Pulaski County, Red Bird Christian School and Appalachian Christian Academy, both of which are in Clay County.
“Those are the only schools in the area that would be able to get involved in this voucher program based on the information that they’ve put out. The majority of these schools, we could guess, are in Lexington, Louisville and conglomerative places that make up northern Kentucky across from Cincinnati,” said Brock. “It’s not going to help kids in our area, even if that’s what people want.”
Many states that now have voucher systems have seen the amount of public funds diverted to private schools inflate since being implemented, which opponents of the amendment believe could be a likely scenario in Kentucky as well.
“In Florida, it’s grown at an insane rate,” said Brock. “Now, 31 percent of their public school budget goes to this voucher program for kids to go to private school. And it wasn’t that high when it started. That’s the worry, is even if it starts low, how quickly can it escalate?”
The Whitley County Board of Education provided the News Journal with a joint statement from board members decrying the amendment. In that statement, the board outlined how passage of the amendment and a subsequent voucher system could negatively impact the district.
According to the information provided in the statement, a voucher system similar to that in Florida would cause a 20 percent budget reduction for the district, equating to nearly $10,304,000 in lost funds.
“This budget reduction would definitely lead to a loss of teaching jobs with a potential for 103 educators becoming unemployed in the Whitley County School District alone,” read the statement.
Those figures are also just based on calculations using Kentucky’s current SEEK amount. Those could balloon even higher if the voucher system is expanded over time as it has in other states.
Brock did not have a definitive number that he could provide regarding the potential budget loss at Williamsburg Independent School, though he did note that he could not envision a scenario in which his district would benefit from the amendment’s passage.
“What’s going to happen is we’re not going to be able to afford teachers, so we’re going to have bigger class sizes. It’s harder if you have 35 kids in a room compared to 18. That’s a big difference when you’re doing things to try to get them engaged in their learning,” said Brock. “No matter how it happens, it’s going to hurt our students.”
Election Day in Kentucky is Nov. 5, with early voting beginning on Oct. 31.
When you go to the polls, remember that a “yes” vote supports changing the state constitution to allow taxpayer dollars to be used to fund private schools and a “no” vote will see no changes to the constitution, keeping the current model for public school funding in place.
