Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to divert public funding to private schools “would be absolutely devastating to a public school system that already doesn’t have enough.” Beshear said 90% of Kentucky’s children attend public schools, and defunding them would be a move in the wrong direction. “We starve our public schools based on the money they actually need,” he said.
Beshear joined representatives of the American Federation of Teachers, legislators, educators and other stakeholders at Consolidated Baptist Church in Lexington to urge voters to reject the controversial amendment, called Amendment 2, which will appear on ballots next month on Election Day.
The ballot question asks voters to amend the state constitution to allow the legislature to “provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.”
Proponents of the amendment say it would give families more choice in their children’s education and would open up more educational opportunities. But critics say it would rob public schools of sorely-needed funds, causing them to suffer consequences that could include staffing problems and program cuts, while primarily helping wealthier families who already send their children to private schools.
Beshear, a Democrat, is a public school graduate whose children attend public schools. He pledged in April, when the Republican-led legislature was approving the bill to put the amendment on the ballot, that he would do everything he could to defeat it.
If voters approve Amendment 2, Beshear said, he expects public school class sizes to increase, staff to receive fewer raises and school systems to face challenges filling critical positions.
Innovative programs could be cut for lack of funding, he said. He said he thinks rural school systems would be especially hard hit if the amendment passes.
Josh Cowen, a Michigan State University professor and author of a book on the politics of school vouchers, said at Tuesday’s event that the amendment is “the educational equivalent of predatory lending.”
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