- Kentucky lawmakers reviewed Senate Bill 207, which lets school boards apply for “schools of innovation” waivers
- The update came as the Kentucky Supreme Court considers whether charter schools can operate without a constitutional change.
- Supporters like Sen. Stephen West argue the law expands options and could boost teacher pay.
Kentucky lawmakers heard an update on a law passed earlier this year that allows school boards to apply for waivers for “schools of innovation” and subcontract their management to outside entities such as charter school operators.
The discussion before the Budget Subcommittee on Education comes nearly a week after the Kentucky Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could allow charter schools to operate in the state without a change to the state Constitution despite Kentucky voters soundly rejecting a constitutional amendment last fall that would have allowed the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools.
Paris Republican Sen. Stephen West, who was the sponsor of the legislation, Senate Bill 207, said in the Wednesday meeting he proposed the law after Amendment 2 failed at the ballot box. It’s based on a South Carolina law and allows local school boards to seek waivers from the Kentucky Board of Education to be exempted from certain state laws or regulations for schools that “will improve operations or student academic achievement.”
West, who is also the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, told lawmakers that the law allows “outside private investment” into the public education system. He said that two entities have reached out to him to say they are interested in working on such a program in Kentucky, but he could not publicly say who they are yet.
“Everywhere you look in your life, choice is almost always better,” he said. “And so whether it’s the car you drive or the movie you go to or whatever, we demand choices. But for some reason in K-12, it’s been pretty stagnant, and there’s a lack of choice.”
At the center of the Supreme Court case is a 2022 charter school law struck down by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd in December 2023. Shepherd ruled that the state Constitution’s requirement of “common schools” meant schools that “must be open to every child, and operated, managed and fully accountable to the taxpaying public.”
Democrats on the committee expressed skepticism about the process outlined by West. Rep. George Brown Jr., of Lexington, said he was wary of how charter schools can leave out some students, particularly families with fewer financial resources. West argued that his law “gives an opportunity for school choice to kids at the lower end of the economic spectrum.”
“I think that we have to be concerned about theory to practice, and what actually will happen in terms of the children and their learning, and what happens as a result of that,” Brown said. “Some parents don’t have the financial resources, but they do want what’s best for their children, and I think that is what we have with the Constitution.”
Rep. Tina Bojanowski, a public elementary school teacher and Democrat from Louisville, asked that with the legislation allowing Kentucky to “subcontract the management of a specific school to an outside entity” if that is “exactly what a charter school is.”
West answered yes, but a main difference would be “the initiation of the request by the local district,” giving the public school district “more control” than under previously passed charter school legislation. West said such schools could also pay teachers more as an incentive outside of the school district pay scale.
“A lot of teachers are stuck in the pay scale of the district, and maybe they’re looking for upward mobility,” West said. “And so if you’re getting paid more at this other school that maybe it’s in a rougher part of town, it’s a little bit tougher to operate, but you’re getting a huge pay raise — and hopefully that’s another component of the private money also. Your private infusion of cash could go to increase salaries for teachers.”
Though there was some bipartisan opposition to putting Amendment 2 on the ballot, Kentucky Republican lawmakers easily proposed the amendment to voters with their supermajority in the legislature.
Rep. James Tipton, a Taylorsville Republican, told committee members the schools of innovation law provides “just an option” for school boards to pursue. Earlier in the meeting, he gave an overview of the history of model schools allowed in Kentucky, typically through public universities for K-12 students. University officials with school programs for K-12 students, like Eastern Kentucky University’s Model Laboratory School, were present in the meeting as well.
“I think it’s important for us to understand that not every student learns the same way,” Tipton said. “There are certain students that maybe have a particular interest in a certain area, maybe they excel at a certain area, and I think it’s important for us to offer them opportunities.”