LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Jefferson County Board of Education voted unanimously this week to join a mounting legal challenge against House Bill 9, Kentucky's new charter school law.
What You Need To Know
- The Jefferson County Board of Education voted to join a mounting legal challenge against House Bill 9
- HB9 sets up a long-term funding method to launch charter schools, by diverting public SEEK funds
- It also mandates that charter schools open in west Louisville and northern Kentucky
- Charter schools operate independent of state and local school systems
The challenge is being led by the Council for Better Education, JCPS communications manager Mark Hebert said. The language of the board's full motion is found below:
"IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED that the Jefferson County Board of Education authorizes Superintendent [Marty] Pollio and legal counsel to take all necessary steps to support the Council for Better Education, Inc. ("CBE"), in its legal challenge to the unconstitutionality of House Bill 9, including serving as a co-plaintiff, and the payment of any appropriate dues or assessments related to this school district's membership in CBE or its support of the referenced legal challenge."
The board's unanimous decision essentially greenlights the path to joining a pending lawsuit from the CBE. It's unclear when the legal challenge will officially be levied.
While charter schools have been legal in Kentucky for five years, there aren't any in operation as there was not a clear funding mechanism until Republican lawmakers passed HB9 over the veto of Gov. Andy Beshear.
The measure sets up a long-term funding method for charter schools by diverting public SEEK funds to the schools students choose to attend. Public charters, like traditional public schools, would have received a mix of local and state tax support.
House Bill 9 also requires that at least two charter schools be created under pilot projects — one in west Louisville and one in northern Kentucky.
Beshear blasted Republicans for the measure, framing it as an attack on public schools.
“I’m against charter schools,” he said before vetoing the measure in April. “They are wrong for our commonwealth. They take taxpayer dollars away from the already-underfunded public schools in the commonwealth.”
His veto was ultimately overridden. Beshear also chastized Republicans for pushing the bill while also refusing to include raises for public school teachers in the state budget.