While the Kentucky Supreme Court has declared the state’s charter school law unconstitutional, the reality is more ironic than alarming: Kentucky never truly had a functioning charter school law.
The statute allowed only two jurisdictions to authorize charter schools and, critically, never provided meaningful funding. It was a law in name only — a framework designed to appear reform-minded without actually empowering families or enabling schools to open and thrive.
For years, we have said as much. On CER’s Parent Power! Index, Kentucky earns an F because its law fails to create real opportunity for families. A charter law that produces zero — or at most one — viable school is not a charter law. It is symbolic compliance.
Importantly, this ruling does not end the constitutional debate. In 2017, former U.S. Solicitor General and constitutional expert Paul Clement authored a legal brief outlining how a fully funded, properly structured charter school proposal would comply with the Kentucky Constitution.
You can learn more about that analysis here:
