Kentucky Court Delivers Another Setback For School Choice

From Forbes, a look at the recent decision.

A year ago, the Kentucky Supreme Court shut down a proposed school voucher plan. Now Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd has ruled against the funding law set up to promote charter schools in the state.

The law (HB 9) was passed in April of 2022 and intended to make appropriations for the funding of charter schools in the state.

Shepherd’s ruling carefully avoided the question of whether or not charter schools are a good idea, but instead addressed question of how the charter funding would violate the state constitution.

Section 184 of the Kentucky constitution has some straightforward language about funding education, including:

No sum shall be raised or collected for education other than in common schools until the question of taxation is submitted to the legal voters, and the majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of such taxation.

Wrote Shepherd in his ruling, “Whether the charter schools envisioned by HB 9 are good or bad, they are outside the scope and definition of the ‘common schools’ defined by our Ky. Constitution.”

You can read the full piece here.