Kentucky students challenging whether the state is meeting its constitutional duty on education

FRANKFORT, Ky.– A student-led lawsuit claims Kentucky’s education system has been in decline for years since lawmakers introduced nationally known reforms. The students are demanding a ruling that the state is failing in its constitutional duty to provide all children with an adequate and equitable education.

The students, who attend high schools across Kentucky, say they want to hold the state accountable for what they see as shortcomings in ensuring a quality education — regardless of whether a child lives in an affluent or impoverished school district.

“Generations before us fought to reshape Kentucky’s schools, and we are here to ensure that promise is renewed for every student,” said Danielle Chivero, a student attorney who attends school in Lexington.

The plaintiffs include the Kentucky Student Voice Team, made up of about 100 students statewide who attend public schools. Some members are claimants. Defendants include top leaders in the Republican-dominated Legislature, the state Board of Education and the state education commissioner.

The state Education Department declined comment on the lawsuit on Wednesday, and a spokesperson for Republican Senate leadership said their office does not comment on pending litigation.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s office did not comment on the merits of the case but renewed the case for significant higher education spending, which the governor included in his report. budget requests to legislators.

“Funding is critical to providing more competitive teacher salaries and funding universal pre-K, which is needed to boost our workforce and ensure our children are prepared for kindergarten,” said James Hatchett, a spokesperson for Beshear, in a statement.

Kentucky is the latest state to be sued over the disparity in education funding between rich and poor districts. Students, families and school districts in several other states – including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Washington – have filed similar legal challenges.

The lawsuits have forced some states to spend more money on schools and distribute funding more fairly. But they often drag on for years, and state legislatures don’t always comply with court orders to change education funding.

The Kentucky lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Franklin County Circuit Court in the state capital, aims to reopen the case that led to a landmark 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that found that basic and secondary education of the state was inequitable and inadequate and the legislature ordered to solve this problem. It.

The result, a year later, was the Kentucky Education Reform Act, which reformed the foundations of education, including a new school funding formula that the new lawsuit said would increase funding for all students and was intended to ensure equity in funding among school districts to guarantee. Kentucky’s law, known as KERA, became a national model for education reform in the 1990s, the lawsuit said.

In the first decade after KERA’s enactment, the gap in per capita spending between poor and wealthier districts narrowed significantly, the lawsuit said. But over the past two decades, the state has failed to maintain sufficient base funding amounts, increasing the financial burden on local districts, the report said.

The result is a gap in per capita spending between the poorest and richest districts that exceeds the disparity found unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court in 1989, the lawsuit said.

The student plaintiffs want a judge to decide whether Kentucky schoolchildren receive the adequate and equitable education that the state’s highest court ordered 36 years ago.

There are other deficiencies, the lawsuit says, including a decline in literacy skills among many students, a lack of civics education and the lack of adequate guidance resources in many Kentucky schools.

“The Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was the national model for effective education reform in the 1990s, has now fallen behind in educational practices and performance,” the lawsuit said.

Education funding is always a key focus when Kentucky lawmakers craft the next state budget. Republicans praised the amounts spent on education in the US two-year budget passed last year.

Per-pupil funding was increased under the state’s main funding formula for public elementary schools, as well as state funding for local districts’ transportation costs. The budget sends more state money to poorer districts, and lawmakers have strengthened state funding for the teacher pension system.

The lawsuit fights back against that narrative.

“Since the 1990s, basic state funding of education has fallen by approximately 25% in inflation-adjusted terms, and the state share of total education costs has fallen from 75% to 50%, placing a heavier and often unmanageable financial burden on lays. local school districts,” the complaint states.

Students said their lawsuit is not a reflection on teachers in Kentucky.

“This lawsuit focuses on systemic failures, not individual schools or teachers,” said Luisa Sanchez, a student plaintiff and a high school junior in Boyle County. “We see the dedication of educators every day, but the root of these challenges lies in state decision-making and resource inequality.”

The case will likely end up before the Kentucky Supreme Court, said Michael Rebell, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Given the time it takes to litigate the case, the older students involved as plaintiffs realize they will not immediately benefit from a favorable outcome, he said.

“Some of them say they hope their brothers and sisters will benefit from this,” he said Wednesday. “But most of them talk in terms of they’re doing this for the future and for Kentucky students they don’t know.”

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Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.