Continued COVID closures + school voucher bill = disaster for KY public schools
A terrible, no-good, very bad bill for a school choice tax credit giveaway is back in play in the General Assembly, with a bunch of legislators who can’t wait to starve public schools by giving tax breaks to people so more kids can go to private school.
A similar version of House Bill 149 made an appearance last year, but failed, thanks to enough public school advocates who pointed out just how much it could harm public schools and the state’s General Fund.
But this time, I’m much more worried.
I’m worried because education folks in Frankfort think the bill will have much more support this time because more people want to send their kids to private school. Why? Because a lot of parents, mostly in Fayette and Jefferson counties, are tired of their children Zooming out all day in online school.
No one seems to know when school will go back in person in Lexington and Louisville. Rumors float, March, April, or not at all. The unions, the Kentucky Education Association, the Jefferson County Teachers Association and the Fayette County Education Association are staying quiet and school boards are laying low.
(On Tuesday evening, Fayette officials announced that K-2 graders would return to school on Feb. 16.)
But if the unions oppose all schools going back in person school this year, as we’ve heard about in other states, then they are playing a very dangerous game. Even the most stalwart supporters of public education and organized labor don’t want to hear about teachers possibly not wanting to go back to school even after they got pushed to the front of the line for vaccinations. That puts Gov. Andy Beshear in a terrible position, too.
School employees in those two counties cannot be the only people in Kentucky to have zero risk in their jobs. Especially not when so many other teachers around the state are back in their classrooms. Reasonable people can agree that teachers and staff should be vaccinated. As soon as they are, why should there be any more hold up?
If you live in Fayette County and have had 10 months of being popped around like a ping-pong over plans to go back or not go back, would you send your child to private school if you could? What if you got a big tax credit from it?
Tiffany Dunn, the co-founder of Save Our Schools and a Jefferson County teacher, is also worried about more support for the voucher bill because of COVID-19.
“I understand the concerns of teachers about safety, but if we’re taking this vaccination we’re saying we’re going to get these schools open,” said Dunn, who fought last year’s voucher efforts. “I don’t think people understand how much this bill could hurt our schools.”
Let’s hope House Bill 149 dies the death it deserves. People who talk about school choice always say they want to help the most needy children, and some charter school legislation might do that. Not this bill. It helps middle and upper class people who can already afford private school. They donate money to these completely unaccountable bureaucracies. The donors get a tax break and the group gives private school scholarships to student applicants, who come from households at 200 percent of the federal free and reduced lunch qualification. In Kentucky, that could mean a family of four that makes $95,000 a year. There’s no limit on how much it could take out of the General Fund in the future.
“The growing pot of monies this would take away from public schools would really hurt our educational goals, our students and our economy,” said Anna Baumann, deputy director of the Kentucky Center for Education Policy, who wrote a recent white paper about the bill. “In some new and crafty ways, this year’s proposal attempts to obscure that it’s a voucher. But the fact remains HB 149 will steer public resources to private schools, third party organizations and relatively well-off families, leaving our underfunded public schools increasingly worse off.”
Rural legislators may think this bill doesn’t affect them because there are so few private schools in their counties. But wait a few years when per pupil spending goes down but fixed costs, like buildings and transportation, stay the same. Another important issue for legislators to consider: An adequate education is guaranteed under the state Constitution, which is how we got the Kentucky Education Reform Act. We are nearing pre-KERA levels of funding inequality already, and it wouldn’t be hard for a group of education advocates to take the state to court again.
Exactly one year and a week ago, I wrote this about similar legislation:
“At the macro level, this is an attack on public education, which is foundational to our democracy, and by the way, is actually guaranteed in the Kentucky Constitution. There has always been a basic compact that everyone’s taxes support public school for everyone because they educate the children that private schools reject. (Not to mention many private schools in the South were only started to avoid desegregation.) If people really think more students should go to private schools, then they should help private schools raise more funds for scholarships, not try to game their state taxes. “
What has changed? A terrifying pandemic that slammed shut the doors of schools. Almost a year later, we have a vaccine and some of us have in-person school. But others are losing faith that their kids will go back in person this year. In Fayette County alone, more than 700 students have left the public school system. Teachers and their unions need to make sure they don’t help in the further foundering of faith in our public schools or the dollars that fund them.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 9:15 AM.
