A new federal super PAC created this week plans to boost candidates for the Kentucky General Assembly this fall who support school choice and education savings accounts to be used for non-public K-12 schooling.
Commonwealth Educational Opportunities PAC filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, allowing it to raise unlimited contributions and make independent expenditures in support of local candidates in Kentucky.
Thomas Davis, the president of CEO PAC, told The Courier Journal his group sent out surveys to candidates for the state legislature last month, and it plans to produce digital and mail advertising for the ones it chooses to support this fall.
While the school choice movement in recent years has pushed in Frankfort for legislation on charter schools and a scholarship tax credit bill, Davis said his group would focus "first and foremost" on education savings accounts.
According to national school choice advocacy group EdChoice, education savings account programs allow parents to withdraw their children from public schools and receive a deposit of public funds into savings accounts, which can be used to cover private school tuition and fees.
However, Davis says Kentucky is one of four or five states in the country that do not allow public funds to be used this way, necessitating a constitutional amendment to do so.
While Kentucky school choice advocates have unsuccessfully pushed in recent years for a scholarship tax credit bill — creating tax credits to boost donations to private K-12 school scholarships — Davis said this would still be "too restrictive" for families, as public money "should follow the students," not the school.
"Education savings accounts offer the most flexibility to parents to give them more resources, whether it be public or non-public schools, in order to give them access to opportunities with resources, books and tuition if they go to a non-public school, but even to give them resources if they are in a public school," Davis said.
Davis highlighted education savings account legislation passed in Arizona and Nevada as models, though Nevada's program redirecting public funds was eventually struck down in state courts, instead relying on tax credits.
A press release announcing the formation of the new super PAC called it "a bipartisan coalition of parents and concerned citizens who advocate for policy change so that our children's opportunities are no longer limited by their zip code or family's income."
The candidate survey sent by CEO PAC asks if they would support legislation to enact education savings accounts and whether tax dollars for K-12 education should "follow the child or follow the school."
The CEO PAC candidate survey also asks if they would "support a constitutional amendment in Kentucky to allow for publicly funded education, whereby families can choose where to spend tax dollars tagged for education."
While he did not indicate how much CEO PAC planned to spend on races in the general election this fall, Davis said he had receive several pledges already and was actively pursing funds.
CEO PAC would have to raise a considerable sum to compete on election spending with teacher unions in Kentucky, who typically support Democratic candidates and oppose charter schools and scholarship tax credits as measures that undermine and divert public funds away from public education.
Brent McKim, the president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, told The Courier Journal that education savings accounts would do the same, diverting "limited tax dollars away from our public schools to support unaccountable private schools."
"ESAs are yet another privatization scheme that function much like private school vouchers, and the research on vouchers indicates that students who attended schools paid for by vouchers would have done better if they had remained in public schools." McKim said.
Davis currently serves as a board member for EdChoice Kentucky — a nonprofit affiliate of the national school choice group — while EdChoice Kentucky president Charles Leis is one of CEO PAC's four directors.
Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.
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New super PAC plans to boost Kentucky legislative candidates supporting 'school choice' - Courier Journal
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