Kentucky Supreme Court Rejects Charter Schools

"We cannot sell people a mule and call it a horse"

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Kentucky’s Supreme Court says charter schools violate the Commonwealth’s Constitution.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Republican-backed bill establishing a statewide public charter school system was unconstitutional. In a unanimous opinion authored by Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Michelle Keller, the state’s high court struck down 2022’s House Bill 9, which would have allowed approved groups to create and oversee charter schools funded with public education dollars.

Explaining the decision, Keller wrote:

“We cannot sell the people of Kentucky a mule and call it a horse, even if we believe the public needs a mule.”

The decision upholds a lower court ruling that charter schools do not meet the definition of public schools under Kentucky’s Constitution.

Are Charter Schools Public Schools?

“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.