Controversial Kentucky school choice bill moves ahead; would let students switch districts

A controversial school choice bill on Thursday was approved by the Kentucky House Appropriations and Revenue committee and then the full House, despite significant opposition from those afraid it will harm public schools.

House Bill 563 requires each district to develop a policy about accepting students who don’t live in the district so that schools would be “without borders” and kids could get benefits not offered in their own school district, sponsor state Rep. Chad McCoy, R- Bardstown said. The bill also calls for the creation of an education opportunity account program. And it specifically affects both public and private schools in Fayette County.

Currently, under a floor amendment from Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Eastwood, the bill allows education opportunity accounts to pay private school tuition only in the larger Fayette, Jefferson and Kenton counties but not the rest of the state. The amended bill that passed 51-45 now goes to the state Senate.

McCoy said an individual or an employee could get a tax credit for donating to an account. But McCoy said the donor would first have to get approval from the state Department of Revenue. McCoy had said families can apply for a grant from the account to attend only another public school district but that changed on the House floor for Fayette, Jefferson and Kenton counties.

Under House Bill 563, the grants also could be used for tuition and fees for public school online learning, tutoring, therapy, textbooks, and other services.

Families applying for grants would get money based on their financial means.

“We are making sure this money goes to the poorest of the poor,” McCoy said.

A school district would only have to accept out-of district students if it had vacancies and the district could count those students in its average daily attendance and receive money for them under the state’s funding formula, McCoy said.

On the House floor, state Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Lexington, spoke against the bill, talking about the choice that the late Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk offered in Fayette schools through multiple special programs without such legislation. Timoney works for the Fayette district.

A day before the vote, in a hearing on Wednesday before the joint Senate and House Appropriations Committees, McCoy said the COVID-19 shutdown of classrooms in March 2020 had left people clamoring for more school choice. House Bill 563 was approved 14-8 Thursday by the House budget committee.

A Kentucky Department of Education official said the bill could have unintended consequences and opponents said it could shut down small districts or public schools. The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents opposed it, though a few superintendents such as Corbin Independent’s David Cox asked lawmakers for approval, saying it would help his students. Kentucky Education Association President Eddie Campbell said “HB563 proves that legislators have no intention of meeting their constitutional obligations to fund public schools adequately and equitably. It’s a sham. And it’s also a shame.”

However, committee chair State Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, called the approval a good first step even though he said the bill needed more work.

McCoy said the details of how the money follows the student have not been worked out so he’s asked the Kentucky Department of Education to help figure that out. The legislation also calls for a task force of lawmakers, superintendents and others to work on how the money follows the student.

The implementation of the bill would be delayed until July 2022. That would provide time to complete reports from the department of education, the task force, and the state Office of Accountability about how money should follow the child into the new district, McCoy said.

The bill was also amended on the House floor to provide funding in Kentucky for all day kindergarten.

Controversial school choice bills allowing scholarships at private schools have failed in previous legislative sessions.

“If we’ve got to just do it for the public schools, then let’s do it for the public. At least it’s something. Something is better than nothing. And nothing is what we were going to get,” McCoy said to lawmakers before the private school change was made.

McCoy said that despite opinions to the contrary, the bill does not allow rich people to more easily send their child to private school.

And, said McCoy, “it does not do anything to hurt our public schools.”

“Hopefully we can help kids who don’t have the choices,” he said.

Under the bill, student athletes who transfer from one district to another can not play sports at the new school for one year.

Members of the group called EdChoice asked lawmakers to change the bill so that the grants would pay both public and private school tuition.

Desiree Caudill, a single mother from Richmond, told lawmakers that she began sending two of her three children to a private school with in person instruction during the pandemic because she could not help them with virtual learning, work full time and attend night college classes.

“This bill could really help me afford to keep my children in non-public schools,” she said, noting they were thriving in private schools.

Since the technical school district funding issues aren’t worked out, state Rep. Lisa Willner, D-Louisville, asked, “Why the hurry to get this done now” so late in the 2021 General Assembly session. Willner voted against the legislation.

State Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, voted against the bill saying it was disruptive.

“This bill,” state Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris said at Wednesday’s hearing, “is not for the faint of heart.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 2:49 PM.