A new measure would create a task force to study Kentucky school districts’ governance and efficiency. That’s after a Jefferson County Public School-specific state task force last year failed to come to any final recommendations, and leadership asked for another year to complete its mission.
“We just want to continue taking a deeper dive and understanding as it relates around student achievement, especially from those school districts across the Commonwealth,” said bill sponsor GOP Sen. Max Wise from Campbellsville.
Democrats were firmly opposed to last year’s task force. They said it was an attempt to justify the state exerting control over JCPS, and rationalize a conclusion that several GOP lawmakers had already called for: to split up the state’s largest school district. This year a Senate education committee passed the resolution unanimously with essentially no discussion, including from the committee’s two Democrats.
While Wise’s resolution does not include reference to a specific district, Senate Concurrent Resolution 131 references the size of the districts, including instructing the group to study “the effects of size on student outcomes.”
“The General Assembly just needs to continue to look at bills that may have passed or other bills that did not make its way through this legislative session,” Wise said.
The resolution directs the group to consider proposed legislation, including bills that would create “new school districts” and bills that would change the makeup and elections for school board members. The former appears to be a reference to legislation filed by GOP Rep. James Tipton of Taylorsville this year proposing a process for certain cities to break off from their districts and create “independent school districts” based on a ballot initiative.
There is not currently a way to create such districts — the few that still exist were grandfathered in after 1934 legislation and many have since merged with county-wide districts out of financial necessity or via court order, according to a Legislation Research Commission study. In fact, the courts required a desegregation plan in 1975 that forced Louisville and Jefferson County Schools to merge originally. Tipton told Kentucky Public Radio early in the session that the bill wouldn’t only apply to Jefferson County, but it would be likely to have the most impact there.
“If something like this were to happen, I would rather have citizens in a community make that decision than the General Assembly make that decision for them,” Tipton said in early February. “It may never happen, but at least this would have that opportunity if they wanted to pursue that.”
Another big difference between the resolution and the one passed last year is that Wise removed the community input component. In a somewhat unusual move, the previous sponsor decided to create an application process by which Louisville community members could become members of the legislative task force. Those members are not included in SCR 131, which is made up of 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats, split evenly between the House and Senate. Wise said that change was a suggestion from the leadership of the current committee.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
