The Kentucky Supreme Court last week voted to overturn state law allowing charter schools, noting that public funding for charters was unconstitutional.
This ruling is really rather remarkable in 2026, but it illustrates what we often say. Public charter schools are politically fragile, and they need a strong defender. This is precisely why the Coalition was created, and it is really what drives our advocacy work.
Amazingly, three states –Vermont, South Dakota, and Nebraska — do not even have laws allowing charter schools. Montana and North Dakota recently passed laws allowing charters. (Read more from Education Week.)
To be clear, in Kentucky the charter movement never really got off the ground. Although state law allowed charters, as noted above, the state had not launchd even one charter school. As the Center for Education Reform summed up, Kentucky’s “statute allowed only two jurisdictions to authorize charter schools and, critically, never provided meaningful funding. It was a law in name only — a framework designed to appear reform-minded without actually empowering families or enabling schools to open and thrive.”
Public funding was the sticking point. The Court affirmed in its decision that state funds “are for common schools and for nothing else,” the Associated Press noted in its coverage.
Following the Court’s decision, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools issued a strongly-worded press release, noting:
“Today, in the most poorly reasoned legal opinion in the 35 years of the charter school movement, the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned the state’s charter school law. As a result, Kentucky students will have fewer high-quality public school options, a tragedy in a state where only one-in-three fourth grade students can read at grade level. The results are even worse for low-income students and students of color.
The sweeping Court decision not only prevents the creation of public charter schools in Kentucky, it also imperils some of the state’s highest-performing public schools and specialty schools. The Court’s reasoning for blocking charter schools calls into serious question the constitutionality of the Gatton Academy at Western Kentucky University, the Craft Academy at Morehead State University, the Model Laboratory School at Eastern Kentucky University, magnet schools serving nearly 50,000 students, the Kentucky School for the Deaf, and the Kentucky School for the Blind because of their admissions policies.
We will keep fighting for Kentucky families until every child, everywhere, can attend a great public school that meets their unique needs,” said Starlee Coleman, President & CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Read more from the Alliance. See articles about the Court’s decision from the Associated Press, The Hill, Forbes, or the Center for Education Reform.
Above: Shutterstock photo.
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