FRANKFORT, Ky. — Governor Andy Beshear vetoed a bill this week that would have expanded the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) to many convicted felons, but included prohibitions for many other types of financial aid. 

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Bill 163 would expand KEES to anyone currently or formerly incarcerated

  • The final bill that lawmakers passed on the last day of session put new limits on other forms of financial aid

  • Criminal justice reform advocates who supported the original bill urged Gov. Andy Beshear to veto the bill, which he did this week

Amanda Hall, national campaign director for Dream Corps JUSTICE, graduated from the University of Louisville in 2020, several years after serving time in prison for drug trafficking.

“So when I ended up in prison, I wanted anything and everything that I could find that would help me get my life on track,” she said. “I knew for quite a while that I needed some kind of help, but none of those options were available to me.”

She said getting into college was a struggle, let alone getting any financial help, and a proposal like the original version of Senate Bill 163 would have helped her.

Hall said there was a problem with the bill lawmakers passed on the final day of session: it would have prohibited many former felons from accessing several other types of financial aid, including the College Access Program and Work Ready.

“Senate Bill 163, in its final form, actually set Kentucky back in a lot of ways,” Hall said.

In Beshear’s veto message, he said he supported the original intent of the bill.

“However, acknowledged drafting errors will lead to unforeseen and unintended consequences that will undermine the bill and the goals it seeks to achieve,” Beshear said. “It is my hope that early in the next legislative session, those errors can be rectified.”

Both Beshear and Hall said they hope lawmakers will come back next year and try to pass the original bill without the extra prohibitions.