Parent school choice bill wins approval in Kentucky Senate

Senate Bill 143 with a Senate Floor Amendment is on its way to the Kentucky House after winning approval in the Senate.

This bill will allow parents to enroll their children, preschool through Grade 12, in another school district outside of the one where the family actually resides provided the parents transport the student to the gaining school.

The bill stipulates that the gaining district (but, importantly, not the losing district) must approve of the transfer and cannot charge tuition for out-of-district students. If a district gets more requests than it can handle, admissions will be based on either a first-come, first-served basis or by a random lottery.

The gaining district will get 90 percent of the state SEEK money that it normally receives for any student for each transfer. The losing district will get 10 percent of the SEEK money it would receive if the student had remained there.

The bill has provisions to prevent abuse of high school athletics recruitment rules.

This bill certainly would make an important improvement in parental choices.

It could be especially attractive to parents whose work place is located in another school district. It will also be attractive for situations where an adjoining school district has a school close to the residence that requires a shorter student ride than a longer bus trip to the normally assigned school in the parents’ resides school district.

The bill will also end a number of district-to-district transfer squabbles which have plagued the commonwealth for years.

It would also help end situations where parents are finding themselves in serious trouble for improperly enrolling their children in districts where they don’t actually reside.