ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — In the final run up to this year’s election, campaigns are using what time is left to sway voters on Amendment 2. The ballot measure seeks to amend the state constitution to allow funding for nonpublic education.
Supporters of Amendment 2 believe it would give families more educational choices for their children, while opponents say it will negatively affect public school funding.
At a rally in Elizabethtown, Protect Our Schools KY, the leading campaign against the amendment, rallied its supports in hopes of a victory tomorrow.
“And we’re here in our home stretch of our campaign to make sure that we are raising awareness in every single community, all across the Commonwealth about what’s at stake,” Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association told a crowd of anti-Amendment 2 supporters.
Shortly after brief remarks, the crowd walked to the nearby Elizabethtown square, holding signs showing their opposition to the amendment before door knocking in a nearby neighborhood.
“This voucher amendment will siphon away tax dollars from our public schools and starve our students from critical resources that they need to receive the strongest education possible, the strongest public education possible and to help set them up for a life of success,” Campbell said.
On the other side of the issue, parents like Miranda Stovall want to see the ballot measure pass. Stovall, who lives in Jefferson County, is a mother of four. Her children have gone through both public and private education, and currently has one child enrolled in a Jefferson County Public School.
Stovall believes there should not be a monopoly on educational funding in Kentucky.
“Education is not one size fits all and every kid is different and public education might not meet everybody’s needs,” Stovall told Spectrum News 1 Monday. “I think it’s up to the families to choose what is best for their children.”
She adds she is “hoping for the best” on Election Day.
The future of educational funding in the state is now in the hands of Kentucky voters.
Earlier this year state lawmakers passed House Bill 2, which put the constitutional amendment on the ballot. Democrats and a handful of rural Republican lawmakers voted against it.
Kentuckians will also see another ballot measure in the voting booth, Amendment 1. It seeks to explicitly add to the state Constitution language that bars non-citizens from participating in elections.
Voters in more than 100 municipalities will also decide if dispensaries and other marijuana-related businesses can operate in their area.