Kentucky’s new law allowing scholarship tax credits to support private school tuition drew a court challenge Monday, as an education group sued, arguing the program is unconstitutional and undermines funding for public schools.
The legal showdown has been expected since the state’s Republican-dominated legislature passed the measure – House Bill 563 – over Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto in March.
The lawsuit was filed in Franklin County Circuit Court by the Council for Better Education. The same group sued over inequities in Kentucky school funding more than 30 years ago. That case led to passage of the landmark Kentucky Education Reform Act.
The group’s new legal action focuses on a key part of the new law creating a form of scholarship tax credits – referred to by advocates as education opportunity accounts. The lawsuit calls it a “diversion of public revenues to private schools” and asks that it be struck down.
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