(LEX 18) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the state's charter school funding law violates the Kentucky Constitution, dealing a significant blow to school choice advocates and affirming strict protections for public education funding.
The court's decision centers on Kentucky's constitutional requirement that public education funds can only support "common schools" unless voters specifically approve spending on other educational programs through a referendum.
"The Constitution binds us to a fixed standard," Justice Keller wrote in the opinion. "Public money may support education outside the common school system only with a Section 184-compliant, voter-approved tax, or if the beneficiary program could have been truly situated inside the common school system."
Kentucky's Constitution includes strict financial guardrails for education funding, dating back to 1891 when lawmakers repeatedly diverted school money to non-educational purposes, the motion read. The framers deliberately "locked up" K-12 funding after decades of raids and diversions from the state's education fund.
Section 184 of the Kentucky Constitution states that education funds "shall be appropriated to the common schools, and to no other purpose" and requires voter approval before any money can be "raised or collected for education other than in common schools."
The court found that charter schools would create financial diversions from the public school system while operating outside its oversight structure. Under House Bill 9, charter schools could purchase buildings with state tax dollars, but those buildings would not become assets of local school districts or the Kentucky Department of Education, the motion added.
"The statutory examples illustrated above make clear the repeated dilution of public school funding of resources that would occur under the proposed parallel system," the court wrote.
The decision comes after Kentucky voters overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment in November 2024 that would have allowed state funding for students outside public schools. All 120 counties voted against Amendment 2, which the court noted "steeled the constitutional backbone of educational funding as strictly reserved for the common-school system."
The court distinguished Kentucky from neighboring states that allow charter schools, noting that most other states have broader constitutional language.
"Most other states' definitions of common school are the baseline minimalist approach of 'free,'" the court wrote. "Many states created 'school funds' but few embedded an explicit, voter-approval trigger for spending outside the common school system."
Chief Justice Lambert's concurring opinion emphasized the funding oversight issues, noting that charter schools would operate for at least five years without meaningful public oversight of how they spend taxpayer dollars.
"What would prevent a school operator, acting in bad faith, from misappropriating our public tax dollars perhaps, for example, by purchasing a shoddy building or acting in some self-dealing fashion?" Lambert wrote.
The court stressed that its decision was based solely on constitutional funding requirements, not the potential effectiveness of charter schools.
"We leave public policy evaluations to the Commonwealth's designated policy makers - the General Assembly," the court stated. "Nevertheless, the Constitution as it stands is clear that it does not permit funneling public education funds outside the common public school system."
Following the ruling, Brigitte Blom, President and CEO of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, released the following statement:
Today, the Kentucky Supreme Court rightly struck down House Bill 9, upholding the Kentucky’s forward-thinking Constitution that rightly protects from the dismantling of public education as an essential public good. The promise of Kentucky’s Constitution is clear: to serve every child through a system of local decision making. Further, funds dedicated to the state’s common school system cannot be diverted elsewhere without voter approval. The Court’s unanimous decision, grounded in Rose v. Council for Better Education, protects the integrity of Kentucky’s public education system and ensures accountability to the taxpayers who fund it. Kentuckians' undeniable and steadfast focus must remain on improving outcomes in our public schools that serve every child - and every family - in every community across the Commonwealth.
