Several Kentucky public school superintendents and other public education leaders came together in Erlanger Tuesday off school grounds and on their own time to warn the public about the harms of passing Amendment 2, the voucher amendment, which will appear on the ballot in November.

“This voucher amendment would siphon public tax dollars away from public districts across the commonwealth – not only in Kenton, Campbell, and Boone Counties – and starve students of critical resources they need to receive the best education possible and help us set them up for a lifetime of success,” said Matt Baker, Superintendent of Walton-Verona Independent Schools.

Baker and other speakers cited research from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KyPolicy) that shows the enormous cost of diverting public money to private school vouchers in the commonwealth. If Amendment 2 is approved and the legislature passes a Florida-scale private school voucher program, it would cost $1.19 billion annually from the Kentucky state budget. That equals the cost of employing 9,869 Kentucky public school teachers and employees. (Read KyPolicy’s report: “The Impact of Diverting Public Money to Private School Vouchers in Kentucky”)

“If Amendment 2 passes, it will upend Kentucky’s constitutional commitment to public education and result in legislation that takes money from public schools to fund private school vouchers,” said Jason Bailey, Executive Director of KyPolicy. “No one knows the harms that will follow better than our public school superintendents.”

Henry Webb, Superintendent of the Kenton County School District, said a private school voucher program will be so expensive because it will first subsidize families already in private school. “The recent experience of other states with voucher programs shows that 65% to 90% of voucher costs go to subsidize families already sending their children to private schools or planning to do so — a group whose average household income in Kentucky is 54% higher than public school families,” he said. “Providing vouchers to that group will easily cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars based on the number of Kentucky students already in private school.”

That money could be better spent on strengthening our public schools, said Chad Molley, Superintendent of Erlanger-Elsmere Independent Schools. “Instead of weakening our public schools by diverting funds to private interests, we should be investing in proven strategies — smaller class sizes, increased teacher pay, universal pre-K, and robust safety measures,” he said. “These are the kinds of investments that strengthen public education for everyone.”

The superintendents emphasized that they are using their own personal time and resources to educate Kentuckians on the harms that will follow if Amendment 2 is passed, and that they will continue to do so.

“There has and will continue to be a lot of money spent in the election about this issue, but it is imperative that voters know the facts when they head to the polls to vote,” said Webb. “Please continue to educate yourself on what Amendment 2 really is — a voucher amendment.”

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy