A joint meeting of school boards in Kentucky on Thursday openly used taxpayer funds to oppose a ballot amendment, violating state law as potentially illegal election interference. It is accused of being.
The Davis County Board of Education and Owensboro Public Schools held a joint meeting to discuss a state ballot amendment that would increase educational opportunities by providing financial aid to students outside the public school system, Liberty Justice Center. said In a press release. Both Boards of Education reportedly used public resources to promote and hold rallies against the initiative, which reportedly could amount to illegal election interference.
Both school boards announced the meeting on social media on Wednesday and said the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA) would give a presentation on the proposed ballot amendment, according to the request. However, the KSBA ostensibly opposes the school choice voting amendment.
“Private schools will take even more funding away from public education,” Davis County Public Schools Board Chairman James Morgan said at the meeting. According to Local outlet 14 News. “If you look at the last few years, our public schools have been the backbone of those communities and helped those communities get back on their feet.”
BREAKING: Two Kentucky school districts will hold a joint board meeting tonight that is expected to violate the law.
This meeting (as planned) would violate both Kentucky and federal law.
Here is the receipt👇🧵
— Corey A. DeAngelis, School Choice Evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) October 17, 2024
According to the Liberty Justice Center, Kentucky law states that the use of public resources to defend or oppose issues such as ballot amendments is considered illegal election interference. Taxpayers also have the right to take legal action based on state Supreme Court precedent.
Advertisements for the rally would also prohibit individuals from wearing clothing or displaying posters promoting the ballot amendment, the request said. After the board advertised the meeting, the Liberty Justice Center reported it to the Kentucky Attorney General. (Related: Swing states’ school choice programs are helping thousands of families – Democrats want program abolished)
“As you can see in this announcement, they said in announcing this that they said attendees would not be allowed to wear signs, shirts, etc. that advertise any position related to this ballot measure. ,” said Liberty Justice Center Director Jacob. Hubert told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And there were several problems with this. One was that they appeared to be holding a rally to express their opposition to a ballot measure using school resources, which is illegal under Kentucky law, and then… It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment to tell people they can’t wear a shirt about a certain topic. And on top of that, they also shut down comments on Facebook posts about this. It’s also a First Amendment violation, because they don’t do that for every post.”
“They did it because apparently they didn’t want people to be able to speak out on this particular topic in their own forums, so we sent them a letter yesterday morning to let them do that.” [the school boards] “We were aware of these illegal activities, so we amended the announcement to remove the part about the shirts,” Hubert continued. “But, of course, the meeting was at 6pm yesterday, so it was quite late, so it seems relatively unlikely that anyone who saw the original announcement would go back and see the revised announcement.” So just because people saw this, please refrain from wearing shirts that express your opinion. So of course I’m glad they made the change, but it’s really too late. , they should have known better than to say that, because it is grossly unconstitutional.”
The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, Davis County School Board, and Owensboro School Board did not immediately respond to Daily Caller News Foundation requests for comment.
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