By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
A bill to provide a funding mechanism for public charter schools and a pilot program in Jefferson County and Northern Kentucky was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Monday.
House Bill 9, sponsored by Rep. Chad McCoy, R-Bardstown, is a follow-up to legislation that was passed by lawmakers in 2017, which allows for the creation of charter schools, and builds on another bill approved last year.
State law currently allows local school boards to serve as authorizers for charter schools, but if they deny it, applicants can appeal to the Kentucky Department of Education. McCoy testified that doesn’t change.
“The only changes for authorization, is that the applicant can ask the KDE for technical assistance on the application,” McCoy stated. “It also gives local boards in districts with less than 7,500 students an absolute veto power.”
The bill would also require that the SEEK money follow a student, if they go to a charter school, and sets up two pilot projects, one in Northern Kentucky, which could also have Northern Kentucky University as an authorizer, and one in Jefferson County.
Pastor Jerry Stephenson, a long-time advocate for charter schools in west Louisville, testified the Jefferson County Public Schools have failed minority students, so school choice is needed.
“I don’t know how people could sit back for the last 40 or 50 years and see our African American young people out of West Louisville failing and cannot read on a third grade level,” he testified. “Something is not working in the traditional public system.”
He added, “Charter schools are just one option that our children need.”
Eddie Campbell, President of the Kentucky Education Association was one of those speaking against the measure.
“HB 9 will make funding deficiencies worse by diverting money away from Kentucky public schools. HB 9 strips away authority from our local elected school boards, who will be forced to accept and fund charter schools, which they neither want nor their constituents want.”
Lu Young, who chairs the Kentucky Board of Education, echoed Campbell’s thoughts. “We cannot and must not allow for-profit out-of-state charter management companies to siphon local tax revenues away from those same locally elected school boards without their approval. Doing so further erodes local control and further shifts our focus away from fully funding Kentucky public schools.”
The bill passed 8-3, with one member passing, and now heads to the Senate floor.