Are Charter Schools Public Schools?

Not in Kentucky

Photo by Miles Manwaring on Unsplash

While Tennessee continues an aggressive march toward full privatization of public schools, Kentucky still has neither a voucher program nor charter schools.

In fact, a recent ruling by a Kentucky judge suggests that charter schools are not public schools, and therefore can’t receive public money.

“The central question in this constitutional analysis is whether the privately owned and operated ‘charter schools,’ which are established by this legislation, should be considered ‘common schools’ or ‘public schools’ within the meaning of Sections 183, 184 and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution? A review of the case law, and the plain language of the Kentucky Constitution itself, yields the inescapable conclusion that ‘charter schools’ are not ‘public schools’ or ‘common schools’ within the meaning of our state’s 1891 Constitution,” Shepherd wrote.

Recently re-elected Gov. Andy Beshear has consistently opposed using public money to fund private schools in the Commonwealth.

The article notes that some GOP lawmakers are seeking to overcome the ruling by placing a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot and allowing voters to decide.

The education scene in Kentucky is quite different than what’s happening in the Volunteer State.

Here, Gov. Bill Lee has proposed a massive expansion of school vouchers - both by expanding the state’s existing “education savings account” voucher scheme AND by adding a new voucher that would be available to anyone, even families with students already in private school.

Lee is also working to dramatically increase the number of charter schools in the state.

Here’s the thing about all this “ed reformy” talk on charter schools. You’ll often hear proponents of charters (and vouchers) suggest that these private options increase the opportunity for academic success for kids from low-income families.

But they don’t.

Back in 2013, I wrote a piece digging into the data between Kentucky (no vouchers or charters) and Tennessee (very charter-friendly then with more pro-charter policy on the way).

The results for kids who qualified for free and reduced lunch told a clear story: Kentucky was outperforming Tennessee. In 4th and 8th grade reading and 4th and 8th grade math, Kentucky’s kids who were eligible for free/reduced price lunch outscored Tennessee’s.

What’s happened in the intervening 10 years? Has Tennessee closed the gap with Kentucky when it comes to economically disadvantaged kids?

Actually, no.

In both 8th-grade math and reading, the gap with Kentucky has expanded. Tennessee trailed Kentucky by 2 points in 8th-grade math in 2013 but now trails by 7. In reading, Kentucky went from being 2 points ahead to being 6 points ahead.

In 4th grade in both math and reading, the gap between the states remained the same (+3 for Kentucky in math, +8 for Kentucky in reading).

Turns out, another decade of pushing for privatization has not helped those Tennessee kids most in need of help.