Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday vetoed a controversial school choice bill under which students could more easily cross district lines or pay for private school tuition in large counties like Daviess by diverting public tax dollars to private organizations.
There has been statewide opposition to the bill from education leaders, including locally.
Beshear said House Bill 563 would drain as much as $25 million from public education — more than was requested in textbooks and technology alone for this year.
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He said the bill was “unconstitutional” on a number of fronts, including by diverting money from public education to private entities.
The measure would establish private educational institutions that would decide how to spend public money, and they could use up to 10% of these public funds on their own employee salaries, benefits and expenses.
Under the bill, an individual or corporation could make donations — making them eligible for tax credits — to newly created “Education Opportunity Accounts” which would be overseen by a private account granting organization. Families under 175% of the income threshold for reduced-price lunch would be able to apply for an EOA.
Grants could be used to pay for public schools tuition (allowing students to cross district borders), online classes, tutors and other services.
They could also be used to pay private school tuition in counties with more than 90,000 residents — which includes Daviess and six others in Kentucky.
That means taxpayers from across the state would be funding a program that affects private schools in only seven counties — one of the issues education professionals at multiple levels have mentioned.
Local leaders have voiced multiple other concerns about the legislation.
Daviess County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Robbins said there is plenty of documentation to show public education is already “well underfunded,” and this bill would be a step in the wrong direction.
“When we’re not adequately funding the system we have, yet we’re creating another expense line item, it just doesn’t feel like that’s logical,” he said.
Robbins also said there are issues with the tax credits that come from donations. He noted tax credits are typically associated with a return on investment, such as creating jobs or other value.
“This, as it’s been independently analyzed, has a zero return on investments — meaning it’s pure expense and the state doesn’t recoup any tax dollars back through that nor does it incentivize economic growth,” Robbins said.
Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Constant said there are worries this will be more like a voucher bill “in an already underfunded public education system where we’ve not been realizing the funds really needed to educate kids for years now in terms of transportation, textbooks, professional development.”
Constant added that districts could lose out on SEEK dollars if students transfer to a private school, as the funding would follow the student.
“That really is taking resources from the public schools,” Constant said.
Both Robbins and Constant said the aspect of the bill relating to crossing district borders wasn’t a big concern locally, as they’ve had agreements in place for years allowing students to switch between their systems without much issue.
Robbins said there’s no real cap on the number of students who switch between OPS and DCPS as long as there is plenty of space to accommodate them.
Constant said, “It’s all been working just fine. Our school choice in our community has worked beautifully, including our private schools. We advocate for school choice. We are hesitant when every border is open.”
However, both agreed that House Bill 563 should not be passed in its current form.
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman called the bill “unconstitutional” and “unethical.” She said in a matter of four years, “hundreds of millions of public tax dollars that could have gone to strengthening our classrooms and supporting the people in them would have been diverted to private shadow organizations that are unaccountable to Kentuckians.”
Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass called HB 563 a “deeply flawed bill.”
“While I’m not opposed to school choice, the rushed manner that this was pushed through the legislature and the lack of transparency and engagement with Kentucky’s education stakeholders has led to a poorly constructed and half-baked piece of legislation that will result in predictable problems,” he said.
Jim Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Association for School Superintendents, said KASS opposes the privatization of public funds for education through tax credits for educational opportunity accounts.
“Proponents of privatization want to convince us that this bill will result in healthy competition among schools and districts,” he said. “But as we’ve seen in other states that have tried this, a privatized free market education system only creates unhealthy competition that stifles collaboration and sharing among schools, leads to greater segregation, more concentrations of poverty, and ultimately widens the gap between the haves and have-nots, creating winners and losers among students and schools.”
Following Beshear’s veto, House Speaker David Osborne and Majority Whip Chad McCoy released a statement claiming there was “misinformation” about the bill.
In part, the statement reads “The bill eliminates no funding for public education nor does it add any unnecessary burdens. Instead, it provides an option to the one-size-fits-all approach in an attempt to help each child realize his or her potential.”
Beshear said he expects there to be a legal challenge if the legislature overrides his veto but hopes it doesn’t come to that. Prior to Beshear’s veto, the House only passed the bill with a 48-47 vote (51 votes would be needed for an override), while the Senate approved it with a 21-15 vote.
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