Kentucky judge strikes down school choice law; proponents plan quick appeal - Yahoo News
Advocates for school choice in Kentucky suffered a defeat late last week when a judge ruled a new state law that establishes tax credits and educational grants was unconstitutional.
However, proponents of the measure said they will appeal the ruling, possibly straight to the state’s Supreme Court.
In his 30-page ruling, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said the tax credit package the Kentucky General Assembly passed in House Bill 563 earlier this year would need approval from “the legal voters” to become legal.
State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, told The Center Square school choice has broad support across the state, including rural and urban communities. Residents have been “begging” for such legislation for decades.
He believes Shepherd’s ruling will be overturned.
“The people have elected legislators who purposefully support this initiative, and a bill was legally passed in 2021,” said Alvarado, a longtime supporter of school choice programs. “Today’s judicial ruling is one lower judge’s opinion, who has been wrong on many occasions before.”
The program establishes $25 million in tax credits annually for five years. Individuals and companies that contribute to state-approved account-granting organizations (AGO) would be eligible for the credits.
In turn, the AGOs would award education opportunity accounts (EOA) to families meeting certain economic criteria. Families receiving the grants would be able to use them to pay for a number of school-related expenses. That includes tuition at out-of-district public schools and private school tuition in counties with populations exceeding 90,000.
The Council for Better Education, two school boards and a group of parents with children in public schools filed the lawsuit claiming the program would divert millions of tax dollars away from public schools that rely on that funding.
A message to the council was not immediately returned.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office, as well as lawyers for groups supporting school choice and families seeking to take advantage of the program, argued before Shepherd last month that the program uses private contributions to fund the accounts.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/kentucky-judge-strikes-down-school-000000644.html
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