While the presidential election is on many people’s minds, this fall will also give Kentucky voters the chance to make some changes to the Kentucky Constitution. Amendment 1 concerns voting rights and Amendment 2 is a school choice measure.
If passed, Amendment 1 would amend the constitution to state that “no person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote.”
While federal law already states that it is a criminal offense for non-citizens to vote in a presidential election, supporters of Amendment 1 worry that local cities may allow non-citizens to vote in smaller elections.
There is currently no indication that Kentucky lawmakers are attempting to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, but there are some examples of this in other states. Representative Michael Meredith (R) points to cities like San Francisco as evidence that some places are allowing non-citizens to vote in school board elections.
While this measure has received much support from the GOP, many have also stated that this measure is simply not needed. While there may be some evidence of non-citizens voting in small elections in San Francisco, Kentucky is not San Francisco.
Senator David Yates (D) stated “I, too, would not want someone who’s not a citizen of the United States to be voting in our elections. But that’s not happening. And I don’t think there’s any fear of it happening since it’s already in Kentucky’s constitution.”
Supporters of the amendment state that while there may not currently be evidence of non-citizen voting in Kentucky, this amendment would close the loophole that could allow it in the future.
While Amendment 1 is important, Amendment 2 is the more controversial of the two.
Amendment 2 would amend the constitution to state that “The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.”
This amendment would give Kentucky the opportunity to create a system that would allow taxes to support types of education other than the public school system. A voucher system is one type of system that has been implemented in other states. A voucher system would allow public tax dollars to go towards privately operated schools. The intent of the voucher system would be to allow parents greater freedom to send their children to privately operated schools.
Currently, parents who send their children to privately operated schools pay taxes that go towards public schools. This means that they essentially pay twice for their children’s education.
While many are in support of the amendment, there is major concern that this would have a devastating impact on our public school system.
Supporters of the amendment say that Kentucky public schools are struggling with a variety of issues and therefore parents should have other options for educating their children. However, educators argue that many of the issues within the public school system are a result of underfunding and that this amendment would have a detrimental impact on public school budgets. The amendment would affect small rural districts the most as they rely more on state dollars than property taxes.
There is also concern that the money parents would receive from the vouchers wouldn’t actually cover the full cost of Kentucky private schools. If this is the case, it would mean that the money from the vouchers would go to families who can already afford private schooling rather than provide options for low-income families. That said, the amendment doesn’t automatically implement a voucher system, it only gives the legislature the ability to create such a program. The Kentucky legislature would have the ability to consider a variety of different programs, but most of these programs seemingly result in similar issues.
While the presidential election is no doubt important, ballot measures like amendments 1 and 2 arguably have a more direct impact on our state than the presidential election. While many who are heading to the polls will be focused on the presidential election, these ballot measures deserve equal consideration, as they have the potential to change Kentucky for the better, or for the worse.
