Amendment 2 allows parents and lawmakers to have a conversation about school choice | Opinion

On Nov. 5 you’ll be asked to vote on amending the Kentucky Constitution. Here is the exact language of the crux of Amendment 2: The General Assembly MAY provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.

Amendment 2 would not shift one single penny from public school funding to private and parochial school funding. But it does allow the General Assembly to have a conversation about whether to provide some form of financial support to the parents of private school students and to determine how that support MAY be provided. IF based on that conversation which will necessarily involve public input, legislation is put forth to provide “financial support” the voters of Kentucky will still have an opportunity to speak to their legislators either in favor of or opposition to that legislation. THAT is how representative democracy works.

Despite the clear language of Amendment 2, this is what Carol Hankins Wolfe, a Boone County School Board Member would have you believe:

“This amendment will allow lawmakers to divert public funds — your tax dollars — to private and parochial schools, with no guarantee that those dollars will be used to serve students equitably. This isn’t a scholarship fund. It’s not a grant program for those living in tight spots. It’s a cash-grab disguised as choice. And the only ones benefiting are the private institutions whose pockets will be lined with your hard-earned tax dollars. So much for the public accountability that Kentuckians demand.”

There are several points to made here. First, parents of private and parochial school students are also taxpayers. A quick examination of the financial support options available in the other 48 states that provide financial support for parents of private and parochial school students shows the amount of that support is not 100% of the school taxes that they pay and in some cases it comes from funds outside of public funding. Ms. Wolfe must certainly understand that if a child does not attend public school than the public school system doesn’t need the money that would otherwise be used to support that child’s public school education.

Second, Ms. Wolfe offers this argument about public support for private education “It’s a cash-grab disguised as choice.” It is not clear to me who is grabbing that cash. It is certainly not the parents who will have to spend what ever financial support they may receive from the Commonwealth on a private education and it is most certainly not the private school which has to provide that education. After all, they also have to provide a building, turn on the lights, and pay teachers and administrators just like happens in the common school system.

Third, the choice is not disguised by anything. There are multiple reasons why a parent would want their child to be educated outside of the common system of education in Kentucky. Among those are the parent’s desire to have their child educated outside of a system that emphasizes DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Others want their child to benefit from a religious education, and some recognize that over all Kentucky’s public schools are not delivering a quality education. A recent report by US News & World Report ranked Kentucky schools 30th in the nation and this may be why. In a January 2024 report by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, it was revealed that “…at least half of Kentucky students are not proficient in grades 4 and 8 reading and math.” Even more alarming is this finding: “For Black students, the 2022 KSA (Kentucky Summative Assessment ) shows that over three-fourths are not proficient on any of these tests. The 2022 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) indicates that over 85% are not proficient.”

Were I a Black parent I would be screaming and demanding that my child deserves better. Those children do in fact deserve better as do all our children. Private schools may not be a magic bullet but they do present an alternative, a choice. Clearly, Kentucky has a much larger problem than the question of providing financial support for private education. A great deal of soul searching needs to occur within the Governor’s Office with his Secretary of Education.

Why do I call Ms. Wolfe’s OpEd speculation? Because at the moment there is not one single piece of legislation that has been offered or is being crafted or is being planned that will line the pockets of private institutions with “hard earned tax dollars” by providing “financial support” to the parents of private or parochial school students.

IF Amendment 2 passes as it well should, the conversation about providing financial support to parents who choose to educate their children outside of a clearly failing public school system overseen by teacher’s unions, the Department of Education, and our local school boards can be had and we can all participate in that conversation. That is transparency.

Vote yes on 2, have that conversation, and give parents a choice.

Lawrence Mazzuckelli is CDR US Public Health Service (Ret) in Union, and the author of Larry’s Letters on Substack.com.