Advocates for school choice gather in Frankfort on Friday for a ‘National School Choice Week’ rally. According to the National School Choice Week website, schools and advocacy groups are seeking to promote alternative options to public school systems, like charter and private schools.
Kentucky currently does not allow charter schools, but a bill that seeks to change that law has support in this year’s legislative session. State Representative John ‘Bam’ Carney has long supported charter schools and is speaking at the rally. He said he wants to give charter schools a chance without hurting public schools.
“We want to be permissive and allow them to have opportunities, in doing that though we don’t want to set back anything we’ve done for public schools. But my goal is to enable charter schools to have a chance in Kentucky.” Carney said.
Carney said charter schools offer “something different” for students in struggling school districts. Charter school opponents say taxpayer money shouldn’t be diverted from public school systems. President Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been an advocate for school choice and was quoted in 2013 saying that she believes that “public school systems in many cases are failing.”