For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023
Contact: Jim Waters @ (270) 320-4376 jwaters@freedomkemtucky.com

The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions issued the following statement in response to the filing of a lawsuit by the so-called “Council for Better Education” claiming House Bill 9, which funds charter schools and requires two pilot program charters to open – one each in Jefferson County and Northern Kentucky – was passed by the 2022 legislative session, is unconstitutional.

Opponents of educational liberty want the courts to deny Kentucky parents access to public charter schools, an educational alternative now approved by our legislature and already available to families in almost every other state.

Charter schools are public schools in which parents choose to enroll children. They are free from many of the regulations that hamper learning in traditional public schools, letting them be more innovative and focused on the needs of students. Kentucky lawmakers originally passed a bill allowing the creation of public charter schools in 2017; then, last year’s legislation – passed after years of debate – established their funding apparatus.

In return for the flexibility granted them, public charter schools contract to perform at higher academic levels after a sufficient amount of time working with students who had generally fallen well behind and weren’t receiving the education they needed from traditional public schools.

If successful, this lawsuit will result in many Kentucky parents continuing to be denied an affordable option for better PUBLIC educations for their children – an opportunity available to families in 44 other states and the District of Columbia.

Such denial would also prohibit a policy that’s spurred improvements in academic performance in traditional public schools in many other places, including Indiana, Florida, Atlanta, Cleveland and Chicago. The competition from school choice creates a rising tide that lifts all boats in public education, whether in traditional or charter schools.

Considering these growing white minus Black achievement gaps in Kentucky’s traditional public schools for fourth- and eighth-grade in the critical areas of math and reading – gaps being closed in many charter schools around the country – Kentucky’s education establishment ought to foster, rather than oppose, the creation, funding and support of these proven public alternatives.

Shouldn’t a group calling itself the “Council for Better Education” be supporting programs that create educational success rather than spending taxpayer dollars to file lawsuits to keep such policies out of Kentucky?

Charters have existed for nearly 30 years and nearly 3.5 million students now attend 7,700 of these innovative public schools nationwide. It’s time give Kentucky’s children – especially those who are the neediest and most at-risk – access to these proven educational alternatives, too.