Protect Our Kentucky Schools Stops in Lexington as part of Amendment 2 Campaign

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — It’s just two days until Election Day, and one local organization continues to spread the “Vote No. 2” message with a rally Sunday afternoon in Lexington.

The Protect Our Kentucky Schools campaign features several educators and parents traveling the state to make their voices heard. Many teachers say that Amendment 2 will only destroy the education system.

More than 20 people attended the rally to share their frustration with Amendment 2.

According to the Kentucky State Legislation website, Amendment 2 “gives parents choice in their children’s educational opportunities” by allowing the General Assembly to provide financial support to cover the costs of educating students in kindergarten through 12th grade outside the public school system.

“Our public schools are already amazing. I mean, we already have special public schools here in Fayette County. We are an academic school of our school, every day I teach students who want to become teachers. We have a medical college, we have an engineering college, just like our public schools are doing amazing things. We need Frankfort to support these schools and put money into them,” explains Amanda Sewell, family consumer studies teacher at Tates Creek High School.

“In the future, our public schools would be even more underfunded than they are today. In Fayette County, for example, the Kentucky Economic Policy Center conducted an analysis of what might happen if the legislature decided to use a Florida-style voucher program; which they have said very publicly that they will probably do so. If this were to happen in Fayette County Public Schools, we could see a reduction of over $50 million or more in our budget,” said Jessica Hiler, president of the Fayette County Education Association and a kindergarten teacher in Fayette County Public Schools.

POSK says that if Amendment 2 is passed, it will impact 90% of students attending Fayette County Public Schools, more than 300 teachers will lose their jobs, and the changes will also affect seven Kentucky sections covered by Amendment 2.

“The biggest misconception is that we keep hearing, ‘this is good for our child,’ ‘this is good for the teacher, but as a teacher and as a parent, it’s not good for our children, it’s not good for our teachers.’ We need people to come out and vote no on Amendment 2,” Sewell says.

“Vote no. Vote no. Vote no on Amendment 2 because we must protect our public schools. Protect Kentucky’s children, and we truly must all work to move our public schools forward, not backward. And that is what the adoption of Amendment 2 will bring,” says Hiler.

The final campaign stops on Monday before Election Day will be in Ashland, Elizabethtown and finally Louisville.

Polls open at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5 and close at 6 p.m. You can visit this website lexingtonky.gov/vote know where to vote.