(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – School choice and pension reform – two of the Bluegrass Institute’s primary policy objectives – moved forward during Thursday’s session of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

The House made history by passing House Bill 563, omnibus school choice legislation allowing parents to enroll children in public schools in districts other than the one in which they reside with the state’s SEEK funding to follow transferring students to their new districts.

“For decades, local districts have managed to deny many parents the opportunity to provide a better education for their children simply because they didn’t want to lose those dollars. But those dollars are meant to educate and prepare young Kentuckians for the future, not simply prop up underperforming or failing schools or their districts,” said Bluegrass Institute President and CEO Jim Waters.

“But even successful and high-performing districts aren’t a good fit for each child. We commend bill sponsor Republican Rep. Chad McCoy of Bardstown for including this provision, which helps refocus Kentucky’s education policy on meeting the needs of children by empowering those who know them best – their parents – with meaningful alternatives,” Waters said.

Waters also praised Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Eastwood, for his leadership in garnering support for an amendment allowing education opportunity accounts to be used to cover private school tuition in Kentucky’s three largest counties – Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton.

“This cracks the door open and lets in the light by providing the hope that a private education can offer to thousands of struggling families in our largest and most demographically diverse school districts left behind by large – and largely ineffective – systems,” Waters said.

“No longer will districts with widening academic achievement gaps and policies which prioritize satisfying adult agendas instead of putting the needs of children first be the only game in town,” he added.

The House on Thursday also concurred with changes made by the Kentucky Senate to House Bill 8, which resets pension payments of quasi-government agencies to reflect their actual liabilities to the system rather than an ever-growing percentage of their payrolls.

This bill contains ideas offered by the Bluegrass Institute in recent years and will result in public policy which helps universities, local health departments, rape crisis centers and mental health centers, many of which have been paying much more than they owe and carrying the heavy burden of huge pension liabilities incurred by traditional state agencies.

“The policy in House Bill 8 brings more fairness and stability to agencies in the Kentucky Retirement Systems and incentivizes them to remain in – and contribute to – one of the worst-funded government pension plans in the country,” said Waters, who commended Rep. Jim DuPlessis, R-Elizabethtown, for shepherding the bill through the legislative process.

For more information, please contact Heather Huddleston at hhuddleston@freedomkentucky.com or (cell) 502.644.1515.