Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd found the state’s education opportunity accounts, funded through donations eligible for state tax credits, violated the Kentucky Constitution because the $25 million pool of tax credits cannot be spent for education “other than in common schools until the question of taxation has been submitted to the legal voters.”

A Kentucky judge will soon determine whether newly created education opportunity accounts can help families pay for tuition to private schools.

The nonprofit organization contends in the lawsuit, filed Monday in Franklin Circuit Court, that that portion of House Bill 563 is unconstitutional in Kentucky because it sends public dollars to private schools.