FRANKFORT (Kentucky Today) – Another blow for charter school advocates in Kentucky came Thursday as the state Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that found legislation approving them to be unconstitutional.
In a unanimous decision, authored by Justice Michelle Keller, the High Court determined that shortly after the adoption of Kentucky’s present Constitution in the 1890s “this Court recognized the ‘prohibition against any practice which impairs the equal benefit of the common-school system’ to all students.’ The mandate implicates state education funds are for common schools and for nothing else.”
Legislation has been proposed several times since then and each time it was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Most recently, in 2024, Justices noted, “A legislatively referred constitutional amendment would have provided state funding for students outside the system of common schools. By a sweeping state-wide rejection in all 120 counties, Kentucky voters steeled the constitutional backbone of educational funding as strictly reserved for the common-school system. The result fortified that Sections 184 and 186 made clear the charter debate is a constitutional one, not merely legislative: education funding requires either classification inside the common school system or voter consent.”
They also stated, “With due respect for the General Assembly’s extensive efforts to broaden educational opportunity, and mindful of the practical consequences of today’s decision, we do not criticize those policy judgments nor substitute judicial discretion for legislative choice. Yet the Constitution binds us to a fixed standard.”
According to the Court, “Despite the plethora of policy considerations the parties and amici curiae have confronted us with, we are ultimately tasked with answering one question and one question only: Does HB 9 violate the Kentucky Constitution? More specifically, we must determine whether the charter schools envisioned in HB 9 actually are a ‘common school’ as contemplated by Sections 183 and 184 as well as a ‘public school’ as contemplated by Section 186 of the Kentucky Constitution.”
The Supreme Court’s summary: “HB 9 violates the mandates of Sections 183, 184, and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution. Accordingly, we affirm the Franklin Circuit Court.”
