Howdy all!
This my first KOS story so please bear with me. Big news on our Commonwealth today. The Kentucky Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, ruled the 2021 Educational Opportunity Act (EOA) unconstitutional.
The high court sided with a lower court decision that legal voters, not lawmakers, must approve any change in taxation when it comes to funding public schools in Kentucky.
According to WFPL, here in Louisville, “the EOA allowed individuals and corporations to donate to a scholarship fund and receive a tax credit of up to 97% in return.
Middle-income and low-income families could then apply to use scholarship funds to pay for educational expenses, including private school tuition in the state’s eight most populous counties.
The $125 million program never got off the ground because it almost immediately became the subject of a legal challenge from the Council for Better Education.”
The Kentucky Constitution requires the state to adequately and equal fund all public-school districts.
This law was passed by a narrow margin in 2021 by our GOP supermajority in Frankfort. That same supermajority has not had good luck as of late. In November, voters shot down two constitutional amendments passed by the GOP supermajority. The first would have allowed the legislature to call itself into special session. The second would have said there is no right to abortion in the Kentucky Constitution.
Now the courts have said if you want a school choice tax credit program go back to voters and see if they want one.