For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Contact: Heather Huddleston @ (502) 644-1515

Editor’s note: The original version of this release has been corrected to reflect that the mayors of Louisville and Lexington rather than all mayors qualify as charter school authorizers in House Bill 9.

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Five years after Kentucky's General Assembly passed legislation allowing charter schools, House Majority Whip Rep. Chad McCoy, R-Bardstown, filed a bill today that could finally allow some to open in the Bluegrass State. Missing from the 2017 law was a mechanism to fund the public schools, and House Bill 9 creates that mechanism and makes some other important improvements to the original bill as well.

“For five years, Kentucky families have waited for the opportunity to attend a free, innovative public charter school,” said Heather Huddleston, director of education policy for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. “I'm so grateful to Rep. McCoy for stepping forward and working hard to develop a robust charter school policy which will truly result in the creation and success of many of these public schools of choice.”

HB 9 not only provides a funding mechanism for SEEK dollars to follow students to public charters but also expands authorizers beyond the local and state school boards to include a new statewide commission, public and non-public four year universities, the mayors of Louisville and Lexington and the option of a non-profit organization approved by the State Board of Education. Applications that are denied can now be appealed to either the State Board of Education or the new Commission.

Charter schools can be started anywhere in the state, but in a district with fewer than 5,000 enrolled students, the charter application must also have a signed Memorandum of Understanding from the local school board.

Charter schools are public schools which have contracts with authorizers in which they detail (in their charters) how schools will be organized and managed, what students will achieve and how success will be measured in exchange for freedom from many of the regulations to which most conventional public schools must adhere.

“A strong and meaningful charter school policy is a high priority of the Bluegrass Institute because it empowers parents with an educational alternative that will place many Kentucky students who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks of our public education system on a path to a brighter future,” Bluegrass Institute president and CEO Jim Waters said.

Most of the 3.3 million public charter school students in America are from low-income and/or minority homes. In Pennsylvania, for example, minority students make up more than 65% of that state’s public charter school enrollment.

“Charters will help level the playing field, ensure diversity and serve as a catalyst for change, particularly in Kentucky’s disadvantaged communities,” Huddleston said.

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