FRANKFORT, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — As the countdown to Election Day inches closer, Kentucky’s top elected teacher is making her strongest statement so far against this year’s Amendment 2, the highly debated ballot question of deciding if tax money can be spent on students outside of the public school system.
“There’s no promise of perfection. But what they do is they offer opportunity. They don’t shut kids out. They don’t leave families out,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said, praising the obligation of public schools to accept all students regardless of income.
LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS:
Coleman is a well-known advocate for public schools, the former social studies teacher and school administrator joined the latest media conference on Amendment 2 to encourage Kentuckians to vote no. She argued it threatens public school budgets and removes a layer of accountability.
“Whatever the complaint may be about public education, blowing up an entire system and creating another system that is not accountable to you with your taxpayer dollars, that doesn’t have to tell you what the superintendent salary is at the private school is not the answer to that,” Coleman said.
However, supporters of the amendment said the current options aren’t cutting it.
“The money is not to support and prop up a system. The money is to educate students. So if that’s not happening and I would say only one in three children reading professionally in Kentucky’s public education system, it’s not happening for enough kids,” Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions told FOX 56 during an interview on Amendment 2 in June.
LATEST KENTUCKY LISTS AND RANKINGS:
The question posed on the November ballot will asks if the constitution should be changed to allow tax money to support students outside of the public school system. Waters argued a vote yes allows lawmakers to debate policy options that up to now have been ruled unconstitutional. He believes state support for some to attend charter or private schools would create competition to improve the whole system, and argued parents still keep officials responsible, not with their vote, but by where they believe their kid is getting the best education.
“The greatest accountability that we have in this debate is parents make those decisions about where children attend school,” Waters said.
“We have school choice in Kentucky, it’s just not the kind of school choice that would drain our public schools of funding they so desperately need,” Coleman said, referring to a recent law that allows open enrollment at public schools across Kentucky.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News.
Local News
