Leaving no wiggle room, Ky. Supreme Court trips up GOP march to destroy public schools

If you like public schools, public teachers, the civic good, the Kentucky Constitution, the Commonwealth, and general fair play, the Kentucky Supreme Court will give you an early gift.

The Education Opportunity Account Act, which allows people to get tax credits for donating to organizations that give scholarships to private schools, was ruled unconstitutional by a unanimous decision. There's no wiggle room at all. Justice Lisabeth Hughes wrote that the income tax credit raises money for non public education and its characterization as a tax credit rather than an appropriation is immaterial.

The idea to divert funding from public schools to private ones is dead because the Kentucky Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the state's constitution.

Jonathan Shaub, a professor at the University of Kentucky, said that it was simple and that they used past precedents. We are not going to buy into these tricks or workarounds because they were written in a very black and white way.

The rights to an efficient system of public education and protections against funding diversions were written into the constitution.

Northern Kentucky University, which is the authorizer of charter schools in that area under House Bill 9, put a spoke in someone else's shenanigan. The power to authorize charter schools was given to them in a plan to give a wealthy GOP donor a charter school. The NKU Board of Trustees had no idea about it.

The board didn't have a motion to accept the role of authorizer There was no motion, no vote, no authorizer. It's for now. It is1-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556

Board Chair Rich Boehne said the board studied charter schools and this proposal specifically.

There is clear consensus among our board that the option offered to us, as defined in House Bill 9, is the one we should take.

I am pretty sure that the people at Heritage and the people at Cato are working on ways to destroy public education. This is all about that. Conservatives don't like public education because it's brainwashing institutions that teach children about Communism and evolution.

Jefferson County, where the dismal performance of segregation schools gave private school advocates an opening, shouldn't be screamed at. It's important that you please. After the Brown v. Board decision, most of the private schools opened to get away from black people. Reform is necessary there. Giving tax credits to rich people to help prop up private schools is not the way to go.

Public education has been the mainstay of our democracy for at least two centuries, thanks to the foresight of Kentucky's constitutional framers. Is it possible that it could use some fixing? Right now it is being asked to fix all the societal problems. What will not do it any good? There is less money and less support. Thanks to all the people who recognized that. Have a happy holiday for those who celebrate public education.