Here’s what’s next in Northern Kentucky’s ongoing charter school saga

BY MARK PAYNE | LINK nky REPORTER

Questions are looming after Northern Kentucky University in December declined to be the authorizer of the region’s pilot charter school, and the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that a key charter school funding element was unconstitutional.

In 2022, House Bill 9 established the Kentucky Charter School Pilot Program and created a funding mechanism for charter schools. The bill listed Northern Kentucky University and gave the university the option to be the authorizer. The university’s Board of Regents decided not to vote on a resolution to be the authorizer of the future school, effectively declining the role altogether.

Now, the responsibility of authorizer will fall on local school districts, which will be required to put forward two board members from districts located in a county that contains four or more local school systems

– ruling out areas like Boone County, which has just two public school districts. Kenton and Campbell counties currently qualify.

These members will become the substitute pilot project authorizer. It’s unclear when a decision has to be made on who will sit on this authorizing board, but the substitute pilot authorizer needs to approve a charter school application by July 1, 2024, according to House Bill 9 language.

Critics of public charter schools have argued that the schools are allowed to deny some students enrollment while still receiving public school dollars. Meanwhile, those who want charter schools feel the existing public school systems would improve with competition beyond parochial schools.

“All you do in charter schools is create potential haves versus have nots,” Gov. Andy Beshear told LINK nky in an end-of-year interview in Frankfort.

In the state report card released in October, Northern Kentucky schools did not fare well. For the first time since 2019, the state reported federal statuses for individual schools, such as Comprehensive School Improvement and Targeted School Improvement.

Multiple Northern Kentucky schools were rated as CSI, which the state describes as those in the bottom 5% of student performance. The Kentucky Department of Education stated that about 50 schools would be identified as CSI on a yearly basis.

In Northern Kentucky, Grandview Elementary in Bellevue; Holmes High School and Ninth District Elementary in Covington; and Newport’s middle school grades received the designation, putting them in the bottom 5% of schools in the state.

As a supporter of public education, Beshear blamed the Republican legislature for issues with the state’s education system.

In response to lower test scores in recent years, Campbell County residents formed the Newport Education Task Force. It’s a watchdog group that wants to see improvements in the Newport Independent Schools system. For the last two years, the group has released its own report that analyzes the school system, its performance, and other factors like budget and teacher pay.

In its most recent report, it shows the Newport Independent School District has some of the highest paid administrators in the area paired with the lowest academic performance.

Test scores are a common thread among parents who want to send their children