On Friday, The Council for Better Education and two boards of education filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Circuit Court against the Kentucky Department of Education over House Bill 9 — the charter school bill passed by the legislature last year.
The Dayton Independent Board of Education and Jefferson County Board of Education joined the lawsuit, which seeks to block the implementation of House Bill 9 — the bill that created a funding mechanism for charter schools and the state’s pilot charter school program.
As part of the pilot school program, Northern Kentucky and Jefferson County are required to approve a charter school.
“The Dayton School Board finds issue with the multiple ways in which House Bill 9 both violates the Kentucky constitution and removes local control from locally elected school boards,” said Dayton’s Superintendent Jay Brewer.
Educators and the Department of Education have questioned the law’s constitutionality since its passage last spring.
In a statement, KDE Commissioner Jason Glass said the department would not be litigating in this case. Instead, it would be up to the Attorney General.
“The KDE and the KBE (Kentucky Board of Education) will not expend its time and resources defending the General Assembly’s charter school laws as the commissioner advised the legislature of constitutional (and other) uncertainties with the law when it was being legislated,” Glass said.
Public school advocates in Northern Kentucky got two wins late last year. The first was when Northern Kentucky University declined to take action on whether it would be an authorizer for the school in NKY — something the university didn’t even know it was involved with in the first place.
The second is when the state Supreme Court said a tax credit scholarship program is unconstitutional, which could set the legal precedent to find House Bill 9 unconstitutional.
“The violations of the Kentucky constitution continue to erode the efforts to provide a uniform, strong and equitable public school system throughout our state,” Brewer said. “HB 9 also forces local school boards to release locally raised tax dollars to charter schools. We find both of these to be unacceptable for our Kentucky kids, and we are proud to join in the legal challenge against HB 9.”
