While it is not the first state or court to rule that charter schools are unconstitutional and have no right to public funds, it is refreshing to see constitutional standards being upheld in an era where they are casually ignored by authorities at many levels.
On February 19, 2026, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that, “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.”
Citing Section 184 of the Kentucky Constitution, judge Keller clarified that, state funds for common schools, which means public schools, “shall be appropriated to the common schools, and to no other purpose. No sum shall be raised or collected for education other than in common schools until the question of taxation is submitted to the legal voters, and the majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of such taxation.”
Back in December 2023, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, stated that, “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.”
Judge Keller, for her part, went on to stress that, “We cannot sell the people of Kentucky a mule and call it a horse, even if we believe the public needs a mule…. Simply putting the label ‘public’ on something does not make it such.”
Charter school advocates of various stripes dismissed analysis, principles, history, and the Kentucky State Constitution and chose instead to make it sound like the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling amounted to the sky falling. They resorted once again to worn-out cynical and hypocritical one-liners about the need for charter schools governed by unelected private persons.
As many writers, journalists, and researchers have explained for decades, there is nothing public about private businesses like charter schools and nothing good can come from “free market” education where charter schools fail with great regularity and parents are treated as consumers who have to fend-for-themselves. It is no surprise that poor academic performance and corruption pervade thousands of charter schools.
Privatization makes everything worse. Only a public authority worthy of the name can defend and affirm rights and the public interest.
The post Kentucky Supreme Court Says Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional appeared first on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Shawgi Tell.