Kentucky charter school funding bill clears Senate committee

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- Legislation granting public charter schools per-pupil state funding cleared one of its final legislative hurdles Monday.

House Bill 9, sponsored by House Majority Whip Chad McCoy, cleared the Senate Education Committee on a 8-3 vote Monday with one “pass” vote from Sen. Gerald Neal.

Charter schools have been legal in Kentucky since 2017, but lawmakers only provided temporary funding in the budget at the time. HB 9 passed the House on a 51-46 vote Tuesday.

McCoy said the legislation would only impact state per-pupil funding. However, HB 9 directs school districts to also transfer local tax receipts, federal funding and transportation dollars to charter schools within their boundaries on proportionate per-pupil bases.

The bill would usher in at least one charter school in Jefferson County and another in northern Kentucky. HB 9 would require the Jefferson County Board of Education to approve at least one charter school application by July 1, 2023.

Northern Kentucky University’s Board of Regents would be allowed to approve charter schools for counties with four or more public school districts under the pilot program if it accepts authorizer status by Jan. 1 under the bill.

Several opponents raised concerns with the prospect of public school districts losing state funding as charter schools attract students from their schools during Monday’s marathon hearing on HB 9.

McCoy, R-Bardstown, said districts stand to lose state funding if HB 9 becomes law, but he said larger school districts like Jefferson County Public Schools, which serves more than 95,000 students, can better shoulder the financial impacts compared to smaller school systems.

His response to a question from Neal, D-Louisville, centered on the prospect of a single charter school opening and not multiple ones drawing students.

“It's 300 less kids that they're responsible for and it's only the (Support Education Excellence in Kentucky) portion that's going,” McCoy said. “We’re not within the margin of error of what they (JCPS) lose with divorces in a given year. I just don't see it having an actual impact.”

Opponents of the measure who testified against HB 9 disagreed.

“If you take one dime from the budget and put it into a public charter school, then it's going to take away from public education,” Lawrence County Schools Superintendent Robbie Fletcher said. “It's going to take away from our public schools.”

Lu Young, chairwoman of the Kentucky Board of Education, worried that Kentucky could repeat mistakes seen in other states regarding their charter school programs, saying HB 9 has "some serious deficiencies" that could lead to "weak and ambiguous" approval processes.

She urged lawmakers to fully fund full-day kindergarten and student transportation and take a more measured approach to charter school funding.

"We cannot and must not allow for-profit, out-of-state charter management companies to siphon local tax revenues away from those same locally elected school boards without their approval," Young said in her testimony. "Doing so further erodes local control and further shifts our focus away from fully funding Kentucky public schools."

"House Bill 9 represents a dramatic shift for public education in the commonwealth, and such a shift must not be undertaken lightly or hurriedly," she said.

Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, voted against HB 9, but he used the debate on publicly funded charter schools to criticize JCPS. Kentucky's largest public school district has "failed the minority population in Jefferson County," he said.

"What has happened to the kids in the West End of Louisville is inexcusable, it's immoral and it's unconstitutional," Meredith said in explaining his vote against HB 9.

JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio called attacks on JCPS by some legislators in Monday's committee hearing "unfortunate" and HB 9 "another example of unconstitutional legislation taking aim at" JCPS.

"JCPS already offers choices to families and plans to offer more choices to all families through our School Choice proposal," Pollio said in a statement. "The only thing the charter school funding bill will do is take public tax money away from JCPS schools and give it to out-of-state corporations."

HB 9 moves to the Senate floor for further consideration. The upper chamber is scheduled to convene 1 p.m. Tuesday.

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