Public school superintendents – who are smart enough to know better – continue to make debunked claims against Kentucky’s upcoming school choice constitutional amendment.
At a recent event, four superintendents from the region condemned Amendment 2, which will appear on Kentucky’s November 5 election ballot. Amendment 2 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 education options outside the traditional public schools.
The superintendents claimed that the passage of Amendment 2 would have devastating consequences. They said, among other things, that the Bowling Green Independent School district will lose $9.5 million and the Warren County Schools will lose $27 million.
But these figures come from a report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, an outfit deeply backed by teachers’ unions, that includes preposterous assumptions inconsistent with the way school choice programs work in other states.
Kentucky economist John Garen, my colleague on the Bluegrass Institute Board of Scholars, has already issued a paper exposing the KCEP report for its bogus claims.
In “The Fiscal Effects of School Choice: Doomsday Speculation Versus Reality,” Garen debunks all the central arguments made by KCEP and parroted by superintendents, starting with the assumption that Amendment 2 would lead to a voucher program.
Amendment 2 does not set up any program. Future lawmakers could consider a range of school choice policy options, including charter schools and scholarship tax credits, both of which were already passed in Kentucky until courts ruled the state’s constitution forbids all such legislation.
But if Kentucky did adopt a voucher, there is no evidence it would have the economic effects on public schools claimed by superintendents. KCEP’s report makes the absurd assumption that all of Kentucky’s 98,000 students currently homeschooled or enrolled in nonpublic schools would receive a voucher. Only 10 states offer programs to support homeschooling families and those are typically separate from voucher plans.
Furthermore, there is no state in which every nonpublic school student receives a voucher. Instead, voucher programs usually have an income eligibility requirement or some other stipulation of need, such as for students who have disabilities. The doomsday numbers cited by superintendents are based on these false premises that do not exist in reality.
Even Arizona, which has a universal education savings account, a policy mechanism different from a voucher that would not be constitutional in Kentucky even if Amendment 2 passes, disproves the claims of Amendment 2’s opponents. The KCEP report falsely says that Arizona’s ESA has blown a hole in the state’s budget.
As John Garen’s report shows, Arizona’s school choice program, like those of other states, has a positive effect on the state’s finances. Students who participate in school choice programs are educated for far less money per pupil than those in the traditional public schools, saving the state’s education budget millions of dollars that offset the cost of school choice.
If superintendents don’t know the KCEP report is a fraud, their constituents should let them know. If they do, they are deliberately trying to mislead voters about Amendment 2.
Let us unite to promote a positive, conservative vision for Warren County.
Gary W. Houchens, Ph.D., is professor in the School of Leadership and Professional Studies and Director of the Educational Leadership doctoral program at Western Kentucky University. From 2016-2019 he served as a member of the Kentucky Board of Education.