During the session, lawmakers voted to put a measure on the ballot that, if passed, would allow possibly money from the public to be used to spend on private schools.

That was one of the many topics last night on Kentucky.

Tonight, as we looked back at the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly.

Our panel discussed the merits of the amendment and whether voters are likely to pass it.

I'm concerned about its chances.

I support it.

I'm a supporter of school choice.

However, the Democrats argument to it is one sentence Don't take money away from public education.

There are many, many, many ways to report that argument.

However, they require a paragraph to retort and in part, in campaigns, when you're messaging, the shortest message usually wins.

So, you know, I'm concerned.

And also the other problem is you have motive.

You have people who want education, scholarship accounts.

You have people who want charter schools.

You have people who want vouchers.

They're all going to be pushing their own messaging, whereas the Democrats messaging against this bill is singular.

Don't take money away from public schools.

So, you know, I think it's got an uphill battle, not because there's not public support for it.

Every poll says that there is, but I think the messaging is just becomes very difficult in a campaign cycle when begin the the anti side has a very simple message.

It's not about school choice.

That's the misnomer that's out there.

This is about school privatization.

And in every other major state where you see a lot of big school choice efforts, what you see is largely voucher programs where dollars are going to pay for kids who are already in private schools, were already going to private schools, attending private schools on the state's dime.

And those are religious schools that could be schools for Christianity, Catholicism, Islam.

It could be anything.

But it really flies in the face of 200 plus years of Kentucky's Constitution, which states public dollars go to public schools.

And until public schools say, we've got what we need and we've got the accountability results to show it, this is a really bold move.

Don't forget, the genesis of this whole amendment, though, is the striking down of the funding mechanism for the charter school bills, which is already in the books by virtue of what your public charter schools and the education opportunity.

Well, but I'm not sure the public charter schools will be public employees.

They be public schools.

And I think, you know, there's a lot of support for charter schools.

You have a lot of Democrats and other places in the country who are huge supporters of charters.

But this is not about charter schools.

Charter schools can already exist but already have charter schools.

There's the funding mechanism for funding that was struck down by the Supreme Court.

There's a reason that Speaker Osborne gaveled down every member, including members of his own party, who tried to talk about the implications of this amendment on the floor.

He was trying to silence what will happen to not only our public school system, but the fact that these private schools receiving public taxpayer dollars are not going to be subject to the same accountability system as our public schools.

So when people talk about the quote unquote poor performance of public schools, you won't be able to look at a private school receiving public money and tell whether your kid who goes there can learn how to read because they're not subject to the same accountability standards.

I don't think this is gonna be a Republican or Democratic issue.

I think this is going to be a golden triangle for the rest of the state issue.

I think a lot of rural Republicans are going to vote against it, especially out in the East.

You know, and I really it's going to be well-funded on both.

And I think you have a lot of urban, rural civilians who would love to get their kids out of the public school system and into private schools that are going to support it.

Pretty rigorous discussion.

Last night.

We also talked about the budget, the Safer Kentucky Act, which is the major anti-crime bill and the Kentucky General Assembly's other actions during the session.

You can see that full discussion online on demand at K Dawgs slash K. Why tonight's.