Despite outcry from education leaders, KY charter school bill takes another step forward
The controversial House Bill 9, which would create a funding mechanism for charter schools in Kentucky, has faced a bumpy road thus far in the Kentucky Legislature.
But after a close House vote, the bill sailed through the Senate’s Education Committee in an 8-3 vote, with one Senator passing, on Monday. That came in spite of extensive testimony heard from the state’s school administrators and teachers, as well as outcry from a well-known teachers’ group.
That group, KY120 United-AFT, said they filed a legislative ethics complaint against Rep. Kim Banta, R-Ft. Mitchell, for her potential connection through her husband to a company whose executive has stated a desire to create a charter school.
“The votes by Rep. Banta on the bill potentially outline clear self-dealing and violations of the Code of Ethics governing Kentucky legislators,” the complaint reads. “Rep. Banta was one of the deciding votes… that will result in (direct financial) benefit and support to her husband’s employer, her husband and herself.”
Banta’s connections were brought to light by a series of social media posts from a consultant in Louisville, and later covered by the state’s news media. Banta told the Courier-Journal that the complaint is meritless and that she will not “gain anything from this.”
KY120 United-AFT also called for committee chairman Max Wise to remove the bill from consideration on Monday, though that effort failed.
Charter schools are schools that are publicly funded but operated by independent groups — both nonprofit and for-profit — with fewer regulations than most public schools.
Having already received two readings in the Senate, the bill is eligible for a vote for passage in that chamber as early as Tuesday. The governor’s 10-day veto period begins Thursday.
The bill faces opposition from several school advocacy groups, including the state’s largest teachers’ union, the Kentucky Board of Education, Fayette County Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools.
Committee testimony
Sponsor Rep. Chad McCoy, R-Bardstown, presented on the bill alongside pastor Jerry Stephenson, a longtime Louisville area advocate for charter schools.
The bill does three major actions, said McCoy: It creates a funding model for charter schools, which are already legal in Kentucky but don’t have a funding mechanism; allows school districts with fewer than 7,500 students an opportunity to veto proposed charter schools in their territory; and mandates two pilot charter schools in West Louisville and Northern Kentucky.
Stephenson, who has previously rallied around conservative causes in the Louisville area, said that allowing charter schools would be a way “to look out for the least of the kingdom” in Louisville and that something is clearly not working in the traditional school system there.
Aside from Stephenson, no visitor to the capitol commented in support of House Bill 9 during its committee hearing.
Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, passed on the bill saying that he needed to research the issue more, but said that he was against those that exploit the charter school movement “for private reasons.”
Neal also took issue with multiple legislators commenting that public schools in Louisville had failed generations of students in the city’s predominantly Black West End.
McCoy’s argument that charter schools would not adversely affect public school districts did not sit well with one Eastern Kentucky Superintendent.
“If you take one dime from the budget and put it into a public charter school, it’s gonna take away from public education, it’s going to take away from our public schools,” Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Robbie Fletcher said.
The bill does contain language indicating that not only state funds, but local funds as well would go toward charter schools on a per pupil basis.
Fletcher also said that innovation, a common rallying cry for those in favor of charter schools, was in ample supply in Kentucky.
“You will find innovation there that is so much more than what you can give in any charter, and if you give us the right public funding we’ll make it even better. You have my word on that,” Fletcher said.
Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Demetrus Liggins has spoken out in opposition to the legislation in a Herald-Leader Editorial.
Liggins said that his experience as a public school administrator and principal in Texas, where several charter schools operate, leads him to believe that charter schools too often fall short on their promises to families and disproportionately serve more affluent students with engaged parents.
Like Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Lexington, who is a schoolteacher in the district, Liggins emphasized the wide variety of options already available to students and parents in the district: 34 specialty, magnet and alternative offerings as well as three career and technical centers, among other options.
“Despite the rhetoric from charter school proponents, Fayette County Public Schools has already proven that traditional public school districts can offer opportunities to students and choices to families,” Liggins wrote.
The current law allows any school board or collaborative of school boards to approve such a charter contract, as well as a mayor of a consolidated local government or chief executive of an urban-county government. The only two such merged government entities in Kentucky are Louisville Metro Government and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.
Kentucky Board of Education Chair Lu Young called the authorization and approval process “weak and ambiguous.”
“I fear HB 9 does not represent the collective lessons learned from other states that have established charter school authorization and approval standards, leaving us destined to repeat the mistakes that could and should be avoided,” Young said.
