Kentucky school funding amendment spotlighted at Fancy Farm

LEXINGTON, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — While the race for the White House might get most of the attention this November, in Kentucky, there’ll be a clash of the classrooms. The Fancy Farm Picnic is often remembered for its zingers and one-liners, but it’s also considered the unofficial kickoff of election season. Between the barbs, there was plenty to say about the upcoming amendment on school funding.

“This amendment is nothing more than a Hail Mary attempt to revive failed policies, voucher policies that Kentuckians don’t want, our students don’t need. And the courts have thankfully blocked,” Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson (D-Lexington) said in her speech against Amendment Two.

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The debate over allowing any state public funding to go to institutions outside of the school district, usually referred to as charter schools, is a long and complicated one in Kentucky. Charters were legally authorized in 2017, but to date, not a single one operates in Kentucky. Legislative efforts to create a funding mechanism, as recent as 2022’s House Bill 9, remain blocked by the courts over their constitutionality.

“Half of our kids in the state of Kentucky cannot read at grade level. That’s an embarrassment, an embarrassment. A third of them are not proficient in math,” Rep. Suzanne Miles (R-Owensboro) said in her speech.

Miles, the House majority caucus chair, carried this year’s House Bill 2 to put an amendment on the ballot to change the state constitution, so it’s no longer a constitutional issue. Miles, like many supporters of the amendment, said families need more options because the ones they have aren’t cutting it. She referred to a recent KidsCount report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that ranked Kentucky low in child well-being.

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“Thirty-eighth in the nation. That is so embarrassing,” Miles said.

“They will dry up our public schools’ budgets and they will shutter their doors,” Stevenson, the House minority caucus chair, said in her speech, portraying the amendment as “welfare for the wealthy.”

This is a snapshot of how both arguments are likely to be framed as voters move closer to November.

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