Students from across the state and the nonprofit Kentucky Student Voice Team packed a small courtroom Tuesday as they allege the state has failed in its constitutional obligation to provide an adequate public education for Kentucky children.
The Tuesday hearing before Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd did not include arguments on the merits of the case, but primarily addressed the Kentucky attorney general’s request to throw it out as the state argues the students don’t have the right to bring the suit.
Lawyers for the students describe it as a revival of the landmark 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court decision in Rose v. Council for Better Education. After the court made a declaratory judgment 36 years ago that the state's education system was indeed constitutionally deficient, the state legislature enacted major reforms, known as the Kentucky Education Reform Act.
The students argue the state has backslid since then, pointing to lack-luster test scores, allegedly poor civics education and school funding they say hasn’t kept up with inflation. The courts must once again declare the education system unconstitutionally inadequate, they say.
Assistant Attorney General Aaron Silletto asked Shepherd to dismiss the case, arguing the students don’t have the legal standing to sue. Instead, Silletto argued the General Assembly has exclusive authority to direct the state’s education policy.
“More recent precedent says this court needs to first ask those kinds of preliminary questions about, ‘Is this a political question?’ Silletto said after the hearing. “It can't just assume, because we're talking about the words of the constitution, that the court is the right body to decide those issues.”
Silletto also argued the student’s haven’t spelled out exactly how they have been harmed by the educational system. He said it’s not enough to say the systemic issues are hurting them in a broad or intangible sense.
Shepherd appeared skeptical of the state’s argument, questioning how the circumstance differed from the precedent set in the Rose case, in which the court ruled that school boards did have the right to bring a lawsuit.
Shepherd said it “would seem odd” to not consider students to be harmed by an inadequate school system, comparing the education system to a trust where students are the beneficiaries.
The students and their lawyers gathered outside the courthouse after the hearing. The case wasn’t heard in the usual Franklin County Circuit Courthouse thanks to the severe April flooding, but in the Kentucky Court of Appeals building. In the parking lot, more than a dozen Kentucky students held up a banner reading “KY Students Will Not Be Dismissed.”
“The state is arguing that the students suing over an unconstitutional education system haven't actually been hurt by that same inadequate system. It's simply untrue,” said Peter Jefferson, a senior at Henry Clay High School in Lexington. “We would not be suing the state of Kentucky if we and our peers all across the state had not been personally impacted by the inadequate quality of education in our schools.”
The leaders of the General Assembly — Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne — were named as defendants in the case, but argued for legislative immunity to be removed. Luisa Sanchez, one of the named plaintiffs and a student at Boyle County High School, said she believes the legislature should take responsibility for the education system’s failures.
“Let us be clear, Kentucky students will not be dismissed. We know where the blame belongs,” Sanchez said. “After all, the General Assembly controls the education budget.”
The lawyer representing Stivers and Osborne said Tuesday the legislature stands “ready and able” to make any changes the court may mandate through the lawsuit, but lawmakers don’t wish to be named in the case itself.
One of the students’ lawyers, Michael Abate, a Kentucky constitutional attorney who also represents Kentucky Public Radio, said the students don’t need to prove some specific harm — being denied a constitutional right to an efficient education system is enough.
“This is not a suit for money damages,” Abate said. “We have alleged that these students and other students from across the state are denied their constitutional right to an education under Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution. And that's all we need to allege to show standing to get to prove our case.”
Arguments over the right to bring a lawsuit are a method for the state to get lawsuits dismissed without arguing over the merits of the case. Perhaps most prominently, a suit brought over the state’s near total abortion ban by Kentucky’s two abortion providers was withdrawn because the state Supreme Court decided they don’t have the standing to challenge the laws on behalf of their patients.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
