The debate over the future of Kentucky's education system is moving from the statehouse to the ballot box.

Both chambers of the General Assembly passed House Bill two last week as Kentucky editions.

June Lefler reports the ballot measure will ask voters if they want future lawmakers to explore school choice or put the whole idea to rest.

That begins tonight's legislative update come November.

Kentuckians will answer this question Should the state be able to give public dollars to nonpublic schools?

If voters say yes, then lawmakers could decide what they'll pay for.

That could be voucher programs that subsidize private tuition or the opening of charter schools.

Certainly, we're continuing to see growth in those that are choosing private schools, both religious and non-religious private schools.

There's been an explosion in, you know, homeschool and co-op.

There's just a lot of different educational opportunities that are out there.

Kentuckians have options, but not nearly enough, proponents say.

But with more funding, more private schools could open up and more students could go there.

If your income is not high enough or depending on what part of the state you might live in, your choices are very limited.

And so our hope would be that after passing this amendment to the Kentucky Constitution, we would be able to increase the opportunities for all Kentuckians across income levels and across the state.

But what would that mean for the public schools we already have?

This is not about school choice.

It's about schools choose because schools choose who they admit to.

Private schools.

Public schools don't have that option.

Public schools have to take all students and should take all students.

So our issue is why would you fund a system that's duplicative for one thing, to have two different systems?

Why would you fund a system that doesn't have the same accountability, the same responsibility that our public schools do?

The general Assembly has signed off on school choice legislation before, but those have been overturned in state courts.

They tried House Bill 563, which was, you know, private school tax credits, which is another name for vouchers.

We sued them.

We won unanimously at the Supreme Court level.

You know, it says it's very clearly unconstitutional.

They filed House Bill nine, which was funding private charter schools.

We sued them.

We've won in Franklin Circuit Court.

That's why voters would have to sign off on a ballot measure that would change the state's constitution.

The Kentucky House passed House Bill two Wednesday in a 65 to 32 vote.

But ultimately, the decision we're asking today is, do we have faith?

Do we trust the voters of Kentucky to make a decision?

Are we fearful that they may not agree with us?

They may not agree with what our particular position is.

My vote today is going to be to put my faith and trust in the voters of the commonwealth, Kentucky, to make this decision.

12 Republicans joined Democrats to oppose the measure.

Many of those Republicans come from rural counties where they might not have a private school.

In my district, those options are not available.

So we'll lose a lot of students in my district.

I don't think I lose.

I don't think I lose any.

But I do think I will lose funding.

The Senate passed the bill in a 27 to 8 vote Friday.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Lefler.

Governor Andy Beshear said last week that he does not want to see public dollars go to private schools and that he will campaign for Kentuckians to vote no on the ballot measure in November.