Outside Student Union Room 107A at Northern Kentucky University last December, public educators from around the region spoke animatedly in groups after the university’s board of regents declined to vote on whether it would become an authorizer for the region’s impending charter school.
Authorizers are the institutions that can approve, deny and oversee charter schools.
House Bill 9 from the 2022 legislative session named Northern Kentucky and Louisville to be part of the state’s charter school pilot program — the bill also provided a funding mechanism for charter schools in the state.
The Dayton Independent School District and the Council for Better Education filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the funding bill, as they argue it would take public, taxable dollars and spend them on private schools.
The scene after the meeting contrasted with the absolute silence moments before when Board Chair Rich Boehne requested a motion to vote on the resolution to become the authorizer. After he repeated the call three times for a motion and no regent came forward, the board declined to conduct a vote.
Just days after NKU’s decision, the state Supreme Court ruled a tax credit scholarship program was unconstitutional because it would have sent taxable funding to private schools, the court argued.
Those were two major blows for school choice advocates in the region and state.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said at the time that allowing charter schools would create “potential haves versus have-nots.”
That starkly contrasts with what his opponent, GOP nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron, has said about public schools and school choice.
When asked his thoughts on charter schools, Cameron’s campaign pointed to the “Cameron Catch-Up Plan,” which he said will make historic investments in public education and support school choice.
Cameron has argued in several stump speeches in the region that both improvements in public education and school choice can exist.
“We can deliver historic investments in public education while also expanding opportunity and choice for our kids,” Cameron said.
He also used those words at a campaign stop in Boone County in early June, saying he wants to “expand opportunity and choice for our students.”
At another stop in Kenton County in May, at a meeting of the Covington Optimist Club at PeeWee’s in Crescent Springs, he told the audience that Democrats give the idea that there can’t be school choice and improvements to public education at the same time – something he said is possible.
“I think we need to provide the most opportunities for parents and kids to make decisions about their educational opportunities,” Cameron said before pointing to Florida, where he said Gov. Ron DeSantis – also a GOP presidential candidate – has raised teacher salaries and expanded school choice.
Northern Kentucky will also see big money spent locally and statewide over school choice and charter schools. Both topics will be dominating issues in this year’s governor’s race and in Northern Kentucky for the foreseeable future.
Speaking at the NKU Board of Regents meeting last December, Greg Fischer of Fischer Homes (Fischer is also the chair of LINK nky’s managing board) said that he, along with a group of community leaders, had raised an initial $2 million for the Northern Kentucky Education Task Force – now Educate NKY, a program part of OneNKY Alliance, which also started LINK nky – and hoped to raise $20 million.
Fischer urged NKU’s board of regents to accept the role as authorizer and told the regents that the newly formed group would leverage the group’s $2 million in funding to help NKU through the process if it accepted the role as charter school authorizer.
“We can ensure our region is in a position to optimize its options, including public, charter, private and alternative options,” Fischer said. “Those opportunities include leveraging federal, state and local funding, organizational support and expertise.”
How else does NKY play in the governor’s race?
The night before Fancy Farm – Kentucky’s annual political picnic – Democrats gathered at the Marshall County Mike Miller Bean Dinner, with Beshear headlining the list of speakers who are running for the state’s other constitutional seats.
As the highest-ranking official in the state’s Democratic party, Beshear touted the state’s economic record and his navigation of the state through a pandemic and two natural disasters.
“But even with the historic level of adversity in such a short period of time, I’m here tonight with a message of hope, because I’ve never been as optimistic and excited about what’s to come in Kentucky,” Beshear said.
Further, he said the Republican party is working to sow division.
“We see the fostering of anger,” Beshear said, before using a common trope among politicians that “this is the most important election of our lifetime” and pointing to the 2019 election, when he defeated Republican incumbent Bevin and assumed office just before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We thought that race was about right vs. wrong,” Beshear said. “Turns out it was about life vs. death.”
He also used both of his weekend speeches to highlight what’s going to be one of the most important Northern Kentucky talking points in the race – the overhaul of the Brent Spence Bridge without relying on tolls.
“We’re getting the biggest projects done in our history,” Beshear said. “We’re four-laning Mountain Parkway, building the Brent Spence Bridge without tolls and moving I-69 forward all at the same time.”
For Beshear and Northern Kentucky, a signature part of Beshear’s re-election campaign in the region is promoting the Brent Spence Bridge without tolls.
But for Republicans, it’s another example of Beshear taking credit for something he had little to do with, according to Cameron.
“The project was funded through a piece of federal legislation that Andy Beshear had nothing to do with,” Cameron said.
Cameron is referring to the federal infrastructure bill that Congress passed. The Kentucky Legislature provided roughly $250 million in matching funds, along with Ohio, to further stimulate the funding possibility for the project.
Bu, during the passage of the bill, members of the Legislature were meeting with Beshear’s administration, chiefly Rocky Adkins, Beshear’s senior adviser and former legislator known to cross the aisle to get things done.
Publicly, the project has appeared to be very bipartisan.
In February 2022, Beshear stood on a stage at the Covington Convention Center with Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and said he wanted to break ground on the project in 2023 – an election year.
Eleven months later, in January 2023, Beshear, along with President Joe Biden, DeWine, Sen. Mitch McConnell, former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, stood along the banks of the Ohio in front of the ailing Brent Spence Bridge as Biden announced $1.6 billion in federal infrastructure money for the new bridge.
Just a few hours later, in the Kentucky House chambers in Frankfort, Beshear again touted the bridge’s funding during his State of the Commonwealth address.
In late July, Beshear stood at the overlook in Devou Park and announced the design partners for the project.
When asked whether breaking ground on the project in 2023 is important to his re-election, he turned to DeWine and quipped, “There’s an election this year?”
The audience laughed, but Beshear said he thought it was important to get the project completed and not let politics get in the way.
But, he said, “I certainly hope it doesn’t hurt.”
Cameron, too, said he realizes the importance of the project.
“I’ll continue to support the Brent Spence Bridge and work with members of our federal delegation and the General Assembly to fund infrastructure investments that make Kentucky a more attractive place to work and live,” Cameron said.