Great news for families! On Friday afternoon, the Kentucky legislature passed a school choice constitutional amendment.  Now, the people of Kentucky will have an opportunity to decide if they want to continue letting bureaucrats decide what is best for their children -- or if they want to put power back into the hands of parents. Of course, Governor Beshear will try to frame educational freedom as some sort of threat to education. He claims, "Public funds belong in public schools."  But just two years ago in April 2022, Andy Beshear proclaimed, "I'm proud to announce [students] can ..read more

Today, the United States Supreme Court will take up a case that reflects the long history of bigotry and discrimination faced by American Catholics. The case, called Carson v. Makin, also has implications for all Christians in Kentucky and whether every family regardless of income or zip code should be able to choose a faith-based school for their children. Carson v. Makin has to do with a tuition assistance program in Maine designed to help families in rural areas where the nearest public school may be far away. Eligible families can use the tuition assistance to select a private school, but ..read more

By John Garen, PhD The Kentucky House of Representatives recently passed a state budget that contains an increase in state funding for K-12, including a hike in the base per-pupil funding amount, as well as other items. Though some House members seemed to be pleased with the increased funding for K-12, this is not where the really important education issues lie. The critical piece for Kentucky education is continued expansion of school choice. Kentucky’s per-pupil, inflation adjusted funding for K-12 increased almost unabated for 30 years, i.e., an 80% increase from 1990 to 2019, with very min ..read more

It's no surprise that Governor Beshear's favorite liberal judge struck down Kentucky's school choice bill. Ignoring United States Supreme Court precedent and the IRS tax code on how a tax credit should be viewed, Judge Phillip Shepherd decided once again to go rogue and halt the Education Opportunity Account program. In doing so, he plainly showed how he sees the world: However, he didn't stop there. Within his 30 page opinion, Judge Shepherd recited the education establishment's demands that Kentucky "fully fund" public schools. Of course, the KEA and its allies have never defined what "full ..read more

By Gary Houchens, PhD and John Garen, PhD Our policy advisors were asked to write an opinion piece for Louisville's Courier-Journal on critical race theory. Click here to read their perspective ..read more

By John Garen, PhD For all the parents of school kids out there, I am dumbfounded to note that you have been under attack over the past several weeks. As you’ve probably noticed, parents are strongly – and sometimes harshly – criticizing school boards and administrators over a host of matters, including the teaching of Critical Race Theory, gender and transgender issues, sexual images in the classroom, mask and vaccine mandates, and remote learning. Other parents are working more quietly behind the scenes to find better options for their kids and/or to promote more options for all families. In ..read more

ACTION ITEM: If you agree that wearing masks in school should not be mandated, please sign our petition to stop mask mandates and share this article with others (see share buttons at the bottom). By Kelly Kries, MD As a pediatrician, I truly wish masks worked. To stop the devastation of the coronavirus with something so simple would be monumental. Sadly, they don’t, and imposing masks on children makes no sense according to the data. We were told by many experts last summer that if we had “80% compliance with masking for 6 weeks” that “we could make this virus go away.” Masks were even said to ..read more

By Gary Houchens, PhD Jefferson County school board member Chris Kolb has a foul mouth. But he has an even fouler opinion of many of his fellow Kentuckians. After the JCPS board of education voted to require that every child in the district of nearly 100,000 students wear masks to school, State Senator Whitney Westerfield, a Republican from Crofton, tweeted the perfectly reasonable question, “Did anyone even speak at all to the psychological and educational harm to students wearing masks all day? I sure didn’t catch it if they did. So frustrating.” Kolb, who really had no obligation to even a ..read more

A recent article in the Courier-Journal found that Governor Beshear had failed to fill two vacant seats on the Kentucky Board of Education for more than one year. By Kentucky law, the Board of Education must reflect the racial, gender, and political makeup of the state – which meant that one of the two appointments had to be a Republican. In response to mounting pressure, Governor Beshear named two appointees to the Board of Education – Julie Pile (Republican) and Diana Woods (Democrat). So who is Governor Beshear’s Republican nominee for the Board of Education? If you read the Courier-Journa ..read more

In 2021, education became a key campaign issue in state elections around the country, with victories like Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial win illustrating voters’ willingness to select candidates based on their willingness to boldly confront the failures of the education establishment. In 2022, the focus is more local, as activists turn toward school board elections to bring about meaningful conservative reform. National organizations like Moms for Liberty have emerged to help recruit and support conservative candidates for local board races. Local groups have emerged as well, and in s ..read more