“This board should not be giving money to lobbyists,” said Boone County Board of Education Chair Jesse Parks at the board’s meeting on Thursday.
Parks made the comment in the middle of a tense exchange between board members about whether the district should be a member of the Northern Kentucky Education Council. The meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, saw the board discuss a variety of topics and, in some cases, led to bitter disagreement between some of its members.
By the end of the meeting, the board had voted against membership in the organization in a 2 to 3 vote. Parks, as well as board members Cindy Young and Carolyn Wolfe, voted against joining. Board members Maria Brown and Karen Byrd voted in favor.
The Northern Kentucky Education Council grew out of the merger of several older educational advocacy groups in the region. It does, indeed, lobby for education policies. It also offers professional development courses for teachers, teacher awards, scholarships, and a one-on-one reading and math program that connects volunteer tutors with students.
Several districts in the region are members of the council, and notable educational figures, such as former Ludlow Schools Superintendent Mike Borchers, Gateway Community & Technical College President Fernando Figueroa and Newport Schools Superintendent Tony Watts, sit on the organization’s board of directors. Others who sit on the organization’s board of directors include Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce CEO Brent Cooper and Ginni Fair, the dean of the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University.
Young had requested the membership be pulled from the meeting’s consent agenda, and she expressed some confusion about what the membership might entail. The board members and members of the district’s staff then discussed the services and programs offered by the council and what might occur if they decided to forego their membership.
“This is taxpayer money,” Young said. “I don’t feel good about using taxpayer money for a lobbying group.”
“Am I not mistaken, though, that they offer a wealth of opportunities for our teachers [and] for our students?” asked Brown.
Deputy Superintendent Jim Detwiler described some of the scholarship and training programs offered through the council, most notably the one one one reading and math programs. In Parks’ view, however, there had yet to be any way of demonstrating how the programs measurably benefited the district. He said that no one had been able to quantify the number of students who used the one on one programs, for instance, and the benefits from the district’s $10,000 membership dues didn’t seem to amount to much.
“For our $10,000 we get a logo on the newsletter,” Parks said.
Instead, Parks argued, most of the money went to paying for the staff of the council. He even called out the council’s Executive Director Randy Poe, who formerly worked as a superintendent for Boone County Schools, by name.
“$10,000 should be given to the preschool for whatever they need, whether it’s toner, or pencils or paper or whatever,” Parks said, “not to Randy Poe.”
Parks said he wasn’t trying to cast aspersions on the council or its work, but Brown expressed some trepidation.
“It’s unfortunate that often we don’t realize the benefits of something until we stopped membership,” Brown said, describing a scenario where the district tried to employ a hypothetical program in the future only to find out that it was contingent on membership in the council.
District staff members pointed out that students would not be eligible for the council’s scholarship programs if they didn’t re-up their membership.
Parks asked how many Boone County students had received scholarships recently.
“I was very disappointed this year at how little Boone County was represented by recognition for our hard-working teachers and our staff and the amazing students that we have,” Byrd said, adding that the scholarship award events used to be “Boone County Schools dominated.”
“Most of the teachers were ours and most of the students being recognized was ours,” Byrd continued. “And I’m not sure why that our buildings can’t take the time to nominate these teachers and nominate the students, but you can’t get what you don’t go after. And if the importance of recognizing our staff and students is minimized at this table, it will be minimized in the building.”
Parks asked why the district couldn’t keep the money within the district and direct it towards their own in-house scholarship and teacher recognition programs. He also cast doubt on some of the council’s ancillary programs, one of which he claimed was owned by a former chair of the board. He did not mention the person’s name.
“You’re making insinuations that I don’t think are necessarily fair,” Brown said.
“We don’t have to spend money on lobbyists,” said Parks.
“You better rethink that, considering what issue’s coming up in November,” Byrd said, likely referencing Amendment 2, on the ballot this fall, which would change the Kentucky constitution and allow public funding to finance forms of education outside of the public school system.
Often called the “school choice amendment,” Amendment 2, if approved by voters, would allow state lawmakers to provide public funding for K-12 education outside of public schools or the “common schools” system. Right now, all seven states surrounding Kentucky — and dozens more — have private school choice programs (with some degree of public funding), while Kentucky does not.
If it passes, Amendment 2 would change the state constitution to read like this:
“The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.”
Nowhere in that wording is there any mention of charter schools. Instead, the amendment is written broadly to give state lawmakers considerable leeway in how public funding is used, either for non-public schools or public charters – typically defined as public schools run outside of the state school system. Funding for charter schools is a potential option. Other potential options are publicly-funded vouchers for private school tuition, tax credits for private school tuition donors and more.
Voters will see this question when they go to cast their ballot for or against Amendment 2:
“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?” followed by the amendment language.
A yes vote would allow state lawmakers to pass legislation providing public funding for non-public schools, while a no vote would prevent it.
What is Amendment 2, and what would it do?
Discussion floundered from there, and eventually Parks called for a vote. The board members then cast their 2 to 3 vote against the membership.
“I’m about as disgusted as I’ve ever been in a Board of Education Meeting in twenty-nine and half years,” Byrd said towards the end of the meeting.