Kentucky’s School Choice Referendum

Amendment 2 would open the door for vouchers and charters

WSJ editorial. 

"With no charter schools or private school choice, Kentucky is an outlier among its neighbors and more than half the U.S. states. Bluegrass State voters have a chance to change that in November.

Those are the stakes of a ballot referendum to amend the Kentucky constitution, which has become an obstacle to school reform. The constitution says education funds must be used for “no other purpose” than for “common” schools, which Kentucky statute defines as taxpayer-funded K-12 schools. The state Supreme Court cited the constitution in striking down a tax-credit scholarship program that was passed by the Legislature in 2021.

The referendum, known as Amendment 2, would amend the charter by adding: “The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.”

This would open the door to funding charter schools and vouchers for private schools. A Franklin Circuit Court judge struck down a charter law in December, writing that there is “no way to stretch the definition of ‘common schools’ so broadly” as to include charters.

That’s a debatable interpretation, but a referendum would clarify the issue, and in March the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill to create one. The teachers unions and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, a wholly owned union subsidiary, are opposed. Expect the national unions to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat the ballot measure.

Their refrain is that public schools will be drained of money, and rural districts will suffer. That’s not true, as states across with the country with robust choice programs have demonstrated. Choice merely lets parents choose the best option for their children, and public schools that measure up needn’t worry about competition.

Per-pupil school funding in Kentucky has surged 122% adjusted for inflation since 1990, reaching $17,337 in 2022, according to the Bluegrass Institute. What has that done for students? More than half aren’t proficient in 4th- and 8th-grade reading and math, as measured by a state exam. Amendment 2 would give those students a choice other than failing schools."