KY Gov. Beshear slams ‘school choice’ as Senate committee OKs amendment bill

A bill that would ask Kentucky voters to decide if they want to allow taxpayer dollars to go to private and charter schools is one step closer to appearing on the November ballot.

The Senate Education Committee approved House Bill 2 on a 11-2 part-line vote Thursday afternoon in a special committee meeting called with less than seven hours’ notice.

The bill, sponsored by Majority Caucus Chair Rep. Suzanne Miles, R-Owensboro, would, if approved by voters, create a new section of the state constitution that would give lawmakers the authority to pay for non-public schools.

But HB 2 does not outline how they would go about it. During the House debate Wednesday afternoon, Miles said enabling legislation was “irrelevant” to the discussion of the bill at hand.

The House passed the bill on a 65-32 vote, with 12 Republicans, largely from rural communities, joining all 20 Democrats in opposing the measure.

It now heads to the full Senate for consideration. With two reads in the Senate already, it could get a vote as soon as Friday.

Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics Newsletter

A must-read newsletter for political junkies across the Bluegrass State with reporting and analysis from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Never miss a story! Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics newsletter to connect with our reporting team and get behind-the-scenes insights, plus previews of the biggest stories.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman have both doubled-down this week on their promise to do everything in their power to defeat the amendment, should it reach the November ballot.

Beshear cannot veto constitutional amendment bills, “but I can beat ‘em,” he said Thursday during his weekly news conference.

“I think Kentuckians will overwhelmingly vote against public dollars going to private schools. Private schools are fine, but they are a choice,” Beshear said.

“You know, the way to fix public education is to fix public education, is to ensure we’re providing the funding that it needs, and if you look at these (Republican) budgets, they’re not making the increases in public education that are necessary to make those fixes.

The Democratic governor added: “So you can’t under-fund and starve a system and then say it doesn’t work and send the money somewhere else. At the end of the day, these are private corporations that really want to get their hands on a lot of money that should be going to public schools.”

The ballot question put forth in HB 2 would read as follows:

“To give parents choices in educational opportunities for their children, are you in favor of enabling the General Assembly to provide financial support for the education costs of students in kindergarten through 12th grade who are outside the system of common (public) schools by amending the Constitution of Kentucky as stated below?

“The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools. The General Assembly may exercise this authority by law, Sections 59, 60, 171, 183, 184, 186, and 189 of this Constitution notwithstanding.”

As HB 2 marched toward final passage this week, Democrats have accused Republicans of shutting down discussion on the issue.

The bill was approved in an 11-4 vote Tuesday in the House Committee on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs. The committee was called with little more than two hours’ notice, a move Democrats said violated the commonwealth’s open meetings law.

And on Wednesday, Miles and Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, repeatedly admonished Democrats who attempted to introduce comments about charter school performance and voucher programs in other states, telling the minority party members these points were not germane to the discussion at hand.

Senate Education Chair Stephen West, R-Paris, told the committee Thursday he rejected claims the process around HB 2 was not transparent.

“It’s been filed since January,” he said of Miles’ bill. “It was a two-and-a-half floor debate in the House. Our regularly scheduled Education Committee meeting was today at 11 o’clock. As I walked in 11 o’clock today, it was posted on the board that we would have a meeting upon adjournment in room 171, and posted all day long. We had an hour-long meeting on this one bill.

“So, I believe we’ve had good process on this bill, and stakeholders have had ample opportunity to make their case.”