After years of hard work on the part of lawmakers, educators, and parent activitists, Kentucky has finally passed a school choice law. HB 563 was vetoed by Gov. Andy Beshear, but last night both houses of the state legislature overrode his veto and the bill will go to Secretary of State Michael Adams’ desk for his signature and will become law. Kentucky is one of the last states in the nation to adopt a law addressing school choice.1
What the law does
HB 563 includes two major provisions. First, the law makes it easier for families to send their children to a public school that is outside of the district where they reside. Previously all such moves were carefully dictated by inter-district transfer agreements that gave larger districts an outsized advantage, allowing them to bar the door to keep a certain number of students from leaving each year. The new law creates greater balance by giving students access to any school with an open seat, and state education dollars will flow with them to their new public school.
The second provision of HB 563 will help establish education opportunity accounts (EOA’s). These privately-funded scholarships will assist families with incomes up to 175% of the federal free-and-reduced lunch eligibilty amount to access a wide variety of services, including partial or full tuition, in both public and nonpublic schools. A non-refundable tax credit encourages donations to these accounts, with priority given tothe most needy families.
Predictably, the state’s education establishment and their political allies fought ferociously to stop this modest school choice proposal from becoming law. They predicted the utter demise of public education as we know if we allowed students to have a choice in where they attend school and claimed that HB 563 would steal funds from under-resourced public schools, especially if they go to an “unaccountable” nonpublic school.
The truth about school choice
These claims are all demonstrably false. Eighteen states have some form of EOA program similar to the one in HB 563. Twenty-three states have some form of mandatory open public school enrollment. Not only has public education not been destroyed in those states, many of those states enjoy higher levels of academic achievement across a range of outcomes (see Florida, for example).
Likewise, EOA’s encouraged by tax credits in other states have shown to be revenue neutral. The amount of the tax credit is offset by reductions in state education spending when students choose a nonpublic school. But even if one thinks a tax credit “costs” the public money (by letting people have more of their hard-earned income to spend on some other worthy cause?), the total amount of the credit in HB 563 amounts to a paltry 0.2% of the state’s entire education budget. Meanwhile, this year Governor Beshear and many members of the legislature endorsed $175 million worth of tax credits for movie production and hotel renovations. Do these other credits not “steal money” from public education?
Forgetting the hypocrisy here, the answer is actually “no.” School choice policies of any kind do not “steal” money from public schools because no school should have a monopoly on its students. We don’t look at any other type of public good in this way, even when it is publicly funded (and EOA’s under this law are not).
For example, in my home city of Bowling Green we have two hospitals. No one ever says we are “stealing” money from Greenview Hospital when a Medicare patient chooses to use her benefit at the Medical Center. We recognize that the public good of Medicare is nevertheless a highly personal benefit and the patient should have some choice of provider. The same goes for Pell grants, federally-subsidized student loans, and the GI Bill, all important benefits that allow the beneficiary to choose the education institution that best fits their needs.
Fund students, not systems
The same should be true in P-12 education. We should fund students, not systems. The bottom line is that the defenders of the education status quo simply do not want to have to compete for students. They want to maintain their monopoly because they value the dollars those students represent more than they value the principle that every family, regardless of income, should have some choices in where their kids attend school.
And what of nonpublic schools being “unaccountable?” Such schools actually face the ultimate kind of accountability – if they cannot provide a service that pleases their constituent families, they have to close their doors. No additional accountability measures on nonpublic schools should even be discussed as long as EOA’s are privately funded, and no traditional public school representative should ask otherwise until they are also ready to face closure if they can’t draw sufficient students to keep their doors open.
The fight for school choice will go on
HB 563 is a major victory for Kentucky families. But the fight for school choice will go on in several ways. As we know from the experience of other states, the education establishment will fight tooth and nail to keep families from actually exercising their options and will resist any expansion in choice with all their might.
It is highly likely that Governor Beshear or his allies will file a lawsuit to stop implementation of the new law. They will claim that Kentucky’s Constitution, which requires the legislature to fund and support a system of “common schools,” and which prohibits public dollars from going to faith-based schools, makes EOA’s illegal.
This is a ridiculous argument that will be ulimately be rejected in court. EOA’s do not utilize public money and lawsuits from multiple other states have upheld them. Likewise, EOA’s under HB 563 can be used by students in both public and nonpublic schools (for example, EOA’s can offset costs related to dual credit classes, occupational therapy, and a host of other services that could benefit public schools students). Kentucky’s system of “common schools” is alive and well and is not threatened by school choice. But the law’s implementation may be delayed by frivolous lawsuits filed by the defenders of the status quo.
Secondly, HB 563 includes a five-year sunset provision. Without future action by the state legislature, the students who will soon benefit from EOA’s and public school choice may no longer have those options in five years. The education establishment will endorse that injustice, and choice proponents will have to fight for those students’ interests.
Finally, the current version of the law only allows EOA’s to be used for students in the state’s eight largest counties. I’m delighted for those students (at one point a version of the bill cut out nonpublic students from EOA’s entirely). But this leaves behind untold thousands of students in smaller communities who could benefit from the scholarships provided under the EOA provision. Lawmakers should consider expanding the law to include other counties; perhaps seeing the success of students in the first wave of the law’s implementation will help convince them.
Courageous lawmakers: David versus Goliath
I want to end with a word of thanks to the brave members of the state legislature who endured a barrage of attacks and misinformation about HB 563 from the small but vocal minority who opposed it. The bill barely passed the House of Representatives, with many Republicans from rural districts siding with Governor Beshear and the KEA.
Polling data has made it clear that the majority of Kentuckians – including educators – support school choice. Lawmakers know that the KEA and 120 Strong and many superintendents do not speak for most of the teachers and employees who actually work in the districts. Republicans even know these groups will never endorse them, no matter how often they vote against families in favor of the interests of the education establishment.
But it is hard to have to defend yourself against the criticisms and lies being launced against the supporters of school choice. There is a price you pay for taking on the most powerful lobby in Frankfort. I know personally. When Gov. Beshear illegally removed me and other members of the Kentucky Board of Education on his first day of office in December 2019, it was clearly because of our support for school choice.
I’m grateful for House Speaker David Osborne, bill sponsor Rep. Chad McCoy, Rep. Regina Huff who changed her vote to override the Governor’s veto and allow HB 536 to become law, and every member of the House who supported this bill against loud criticisms from the establishment. I’m especially grateful to members of the Kentucky Senate, including President Robert Stivers and bill sponsor Sen. Ralph Alvarado, for their long-standing support of school choice. The Senate has been rock-solid in its advocacy of this issue. I’m personally grateful to my own state senator Mike Wilson, one of Kentucky’s first champions of school choice, for his continued courage and support.
It is brave of these men and women to endure the attacks they will surely face for doing the right thing. And they will have to remain strong because Goliath is not going away. He’s only knocked down at the moment. The fight for school choice will go on. Let’s celebrate this victory today, but be ready to battle on for Kentucky’s families tomorrow.
1Kentucky’s 2017 charter school law never included a permanent funding mechanism and therefore Kentucky does not have charter schools and never will until that is fixed.
One interesting point about Florida’s improvements involves the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which only reports state-level results for public schools. During the years that Florida expanded choice, it’s public school NAEP results rose in both Grade 4 and Grade 8 math and reading, rather dramatically so for Grade 4. In contrast, choice-poor Kentucky (until now) saw much less progress on NAEP, adding more evidence that choice does not destroy public schools. I have several blogs on this at www.bipps.org/blog.