School choice under Amendment 2 is a transfer payment to the wealthiest families.

On Election Day, Kentucky voters will be asked whether they approve amendments to the Commonwealth’s Constitution in at least seven areas.

If voters approve Amendment 2, which would allow state tax dollars to go to private and parochial schools, the constitution would no longer protect the separation of church and state, no longer protect taxpayer dollars, which would be used only for government purposes. goals and would eliminate protections prohibiting the General Assembly from targeting certain areas of the state through legislation.

Passage of Amendment 2 would result in significant changes to Kentucky’s longstanding founding documents and would have far-reaching, likely negative consequences.

In education specifically, voucher programs that would be funded under Proposition 2, referred to nationally as “school choice,” have consistently failed to demonstrate significant improvements in student test scores. Worse, as states have moved from targeted “school choice” programs to more universal state approaches, student outcomes have declined.

Kentucky cannot afford investment strategies that not only fail to show positive returns, but actually show negative returns. Additionally, Kentucky public schools operate to consistent accountability standards to ensure that all students experience measurable, data-backed educational improvements. While public education has a way of ensuring good outcomes for all students, private schools bear no accountability for the public dollar, leaving taxpayers in the dark about educational quality and outcomes, and the return on our overall investment.

Opinion: Trinity won’t let me write about Amendment 2. That’s why I’m against it.

If Amendment 2 passes, it would pose a significant financial threat to the state and public education. As seen in other states such as Arizona and Florida, voucher programs lead to dramatic increases in government spending and divert important funds from public schools. In Arizona, voucher spending has increased 270% over 11 years, leading to cuts to critical public services such as water infrastructure and community colleges. It’s also important to note that the vast majority of vouchers – 65-90% – go to families who currently send their children to private school or plan to do so.

This suggests that “school choice” is nothing more than a transfer payment—from the general fund—to the wealthiest in our state. As private schools stand today, Amendment 2 threatens to deepen the rural-urban divide. More than half of the state’s private schools are concentrated in just three counties—Jefferson, Fayette and Kenton—while many rural areas have no private school options at all.

As a result, legislation passed after the constitutional amendment could create an unregulated market for privatized education with little more than profit motive. Research shows that such schools actively target families, and then 25% of them close within five years, and a full 50% close within 15 years. And because most voucher programs cover only part of the cost of tuition, families struggle to pay the rest out of pocket and often have to return to their public school.

Opinion: I attended public and private schools. Amendment 2 is bad for education in Kentucky.

Again, vouchers often act more as a transfer of wealth to high-income families than as a way to give more families more choice. To illustrate the above, I offer a quick envelope calculation: Kentucky has 604,000 students in public K-12 schools and 76,000 in private K-12 schools. Total government spending on public education per student is approximately $6,000 per year. If families of 50,000 current private school students (two-thirds) received a $6,000 voucher, that would amount to $300 million from the General Fund—with no changes in education delivery, no expected improvement in state outcomes, and no increase in state spending. that have to come from somewhere—probably a combination of cuts to public education funding and future tax increases.

Amendment 2 represents a false promise of improved educational outcomes and could instead undermine Kentucky’s commitment to education as a public good—instead, turning education into a private good with winners and losers. Instead of improving outcomes for all students, it risks destabilizing the state’s progress in education, deepening the divide between the “haves and have-nots” and placing an unsustainable financial burden on taxpayers.

Amendment 2 is a race to the bottom, driven by the national interest rather than the interests of Kentuckians. This is a race that Kentucky must refuse to submit to.

Bridget Blom is President/CEO of the Prichard Academic Excellence Committee.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Opinion: Kentucky’s Amendment 2 gives rich money for school choice.