Kentuckians overwhelmingly rejected Constitutional Amendment 2, which asked voters whether or not they wanted to allow state legislators to discuss and potentially reform Kentucky’s approach to K-12 education.
Approximately 65% of voters rejected the proposed amendment, according to the Associated Press.
Local public school officials were pleased with the outcome.
“This is a huge victory for public education in Kentucky,” said Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Wendy Duvall. “It is clear that Kentuckians value public education and they want to see our legislature do more to serve our children in public schools. Now, we will move forward and work with our legislature to ensure Kentucky students are receiving the best education possible.”
Daviess County Public Schools Superintendent Charles Broughton said the results does not change the district’s daily objectives of delivering “an exceptional education and providing excellent customer service to our students, staff, and community of DCPS.”
“Our ultimate goal is to prepare students for success after high school, and we remain committed to this mission for our more than 10,000 students,” he said. “However, this vote confirms that Kentucky voters do not support changing the state constitution to allow taxpayer money to fund private schools. I hope this resounding outcome encourages our state legislators to prioritize future budgets to sufficiently support public schools as we educate more than 90% of Kentucky’s students. We absolutely must be far more competitive with teacher salaries to enable schools to recruit and retain the best and brightest teachers for the ultimate benefit of our students.”
Owensboro Catholic Schools Superintendent David Kessler said OCS remains committed to finding solutions that support the educational needs of Kentucky’s children and communities.
“Though this amendment’s proposed re-wording of the Kentucky Constitution was not approved, the conversation about innovative school funding continues,” he said. “We will keep working closely with our communities, educators, and policymakers to identify ways to invest in the future of Kentucky’s students and maintain the quality of education they deserve.”
The legislative measure was introduced and sponsored by State Rep. Suzanne Miles. While disappointed with the result, she said the legislature remains committed to educational reform.
“We have work to do, and we will continue to work to see how we can get test scores up, make sure every child can read, make sure every child can do math,” she said. “The focus is no different for tomorrow than it was yesterday: to absolutely make sure that education becomes a focus. Money is not going to fix that issue. We’ve continued to do record funding for the education system K-12 for the last 7 years, and we haven’t been able to move the needle on those test scores. That’s the main thing, we just need to figure out a different mindset for how we move that forward.”
State Rep. DJ Johnson echoed those thoughts, saying lawmakers’ work to improve public education will continue.
“I admit that I hoped we would have another tool in our belt, but I also understand that voters are hesitant to make such a major change,” he said. “We’ll continue to put students first and work with parents, educators, and other stakeholders to move Kentucky from the bottom third in performance by helping more Kentucky children reach their potential.
