By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Two “products of public schools” opted to speak against Kentucky’s proposed constitutional amendment at the Oct. 17 meeting of the Barren County Board of Education.
Kentucky constitutional amendment 2 is one of the proposed amendments Barren Countians will see on their ballots this November and would allow the General Assembly to use public funds to provide “financial support” for nonpublic schools. It was with this knowledge that Assistant Superintendent Scott Harper announced to the board members that two individuals had signed up for public comment.
The first was Frances Steenbergen, who graduated from Austin Tracy and Western Kentucky University and worked with the Kentucky Education Association.
“I am the third of six children and all six of us are proud graduates of public schools,” Steenbergen said. “I’m afraid if constitutional amendment 2 passes, all those opportunities that were afforded to poor white kids that grew up on a farm will not be available for much longer.”
During her allotted 5 minutes, Steenbergen cited a report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy that breaks down by county the impact to public schools if the General Assembly implemented a voucher program, which essentially provides family money to go towards paying tuition at private institutions.
For Barren County the center reported that a voucher program similar to the one implemented by Florida would result in a 16 percent decrease in public schools overall budgets amounting to approximately $10.9 million.
The center also calculated the “proportional loss of public school personnel” and, again using the Florida scale, estimated a loss of 93 jobs.
“I certainly hope all of you will vote no,” Steenbergen said. “I liken it to this…let’s say the public was offering free tennis lessons but I didn’t want to go to the free lessons with all the other people. I wanted private lessons, but I wanted the public courts to pay for it.”
Tammy Stephens, a product of Barren County Schools, spoke next making similar points to Steenbergen and pointing out that while the amendment may be beneficial to students in Jefferson County, Barren County students would be hurt by its passage.
“Making sure amendment 2 does not pass is very critical for the financial needs of all our children and particularly us in rural Kentucky,” Stevens said. “We can’t afford not to vote no, not here in Barren County…because our kids will suffer the most.”
It was this rationale that caused Barren County State Representative Steve Riley, and a member of the education committee, to vote “no” when the issue was initially put up for a vote.
“My fear, and I think this is a lot of the fears of representatives in rural areas, is that funding [for public schools] will not be as adequate as it needs to be,” Riley said in an April 10 interview. “I think a lot of people [from rural areas that are] in the legislature are concerned about funding for their schools. I don’t think school choice is going to be big in rural areas, I think it will be more predominant in urban areas, and as a representative of a rural area I felt like I needed to protect my area as far as education goes.”
Barren County Schools is not the first public school to address the amendment. Earlier this year the Glasgow Independent Schools Board of Education hear from Superintendent Nic Clement, who called the amendment a “blank check” with Glasgow Superintendent Chad Muhlenkamp saying it’s a ” a concern for public education.”
The Kentucky Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month “supporting the use of state dollars to exclusively fund” public schools.
“The constitutional framers made clear that public funds were to be used to fund our common school system at the exclusion of all [other school systems],” board chair Sharon Robinson said.
Laying on the entrance table beside the night’s agenda were two papers addressing this issue. One was provided by Steenbergen and it aims to provide explanations and clarifies the language used in the amendment.
The other paper was a statement from the Kentucky School Boards Association that “vehemently” opposes the amendment calling it a “bad idea for Kentucky’s public schools.”
Untimely, regardless of the lobbying for and against the amendment, voters will decided on Nov. 5.
