LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky’s House budget committee is set to consider legislation Thursday creating education opportunity accounts that cannot be spent on private school tuitions, frustrating some school choice advocates who have lobbied lawmakers for years.
A proposed committee amendment to House Bill 563, sponsored by House Majority Whip Chad McCoy, would create a $25 million pool of state tax credits for those who donate to organizations that will dole out grants to families for education expenses like tutoring, textbooks and uniforms.
HB 563 would also require school districts to develop admissions policies for students who do not live within districts’ boundaries and also allow districts to count those students in average daily attendance, which affects state funding amounts. Some school districts currently receive Support Educational Excellence in Kentucky for nonresident students through reciprocal agreements with other school systems.
McCoy presented the proposed changes to HB 563 Wednesday during a joint meeting of the House and Senate budget committees. The legislation has enough readings to be considered on the House floor on Thursday if it clears the lower chamber’s appropriations and revenue committee.
Kentucky’s education opportunity account program would begin in July 2022 if ultimately approved by the General Assembly, McCoy said.
The proposed program would only be available to families who earn 175% of the federal limit to qualify for reduced-price school meals, or about $86,000 for a family of four in the upcoming school year, and recipients will be means-tested to determine how much they’ll receive based on their income, McCoy said.
“Just because somebody comes in under that ceiling of 175%, that doesn't mean they get what they ask for,” he said. “… We’re going to line people up and we're making sure that this money goes to the poorest of the poor.”
While tuition for public schools remains in the latest proposal of HB 563, private school tuition has been cut from the list of spending possibilities for education opportunity accounts.
“I want to be very clear: I personally hate that,” McCoy said, noting past opposition to giving tax dollars to private schools in the form of scholarship tax credits.
“I’m about educating the kids, so if we've got to just do it for public then let's do it for the public,” he said. “At least it's something, and something is better than nothing, and nothing is what we were going to get.”
Representatives of EdChoice Kentucky, including a single mother of three from Richmond, urged lawmakers to add private school tuitions back into the list of expenses covered by education opportunity accounts.
“I ask you to think of the implications for the children in Kentucky, those children that the school they’re in just simply doesn't fit their needs,” said Charles Leis, president of EdChoice Kentucky. “It's not something that you do next year or the year after. It affects their life.”
Lawmakers also aired their concerns with the proposed committee substitute of HB 563.
Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville, suggested adding safeguards to ensure students will be safe with service providers, noting recent abuse scandals that have come to light in gymnastics and cheerleading.
“I don't know if I'm looking for a background check or some other criteria, but I think we need to add in a protection to students,” she said.
Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, asked McCoy to consider setting limits in HB 563 so the $25 million in tax credits are not consumed entirely by “a few donors in an urban area.” Donors can recoup up to 95% of their donations for up to $1 million in tax credits in other versions of legislation creating education opportunity accounts.
That $25 million “potentially will go to one area of the state,” he said, adding that he’s “not comfortable in any way” with HB 563 as proposed.
“Even though I support school choice, I struggle with the structure of this legislation,” Carroll said.
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