The Kentucky Supreme Court has struck down a 2022 law that shifted authority away from the Jefferson County School Board and toward the district’s superintendent.
The ruling reverses a prior decision in which the high court upheld the law. Portions of the legislation imposed new limits on school boards in county school districts with consolidated local governments. As written, however, the law applied only to one district: Jefferson County Public Schools.
The central issue before the court was whether the legislature overstepped by effectively singling out a single county.
JCPS argued that it did, saying the law violated constitutional bans on special and local legislation. Matt Kuhn, representing the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, countered that the language created an open class and that the restrictions could eventually apply to other communities.
Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement he was “stunned” by the decision, calling its impact “devastating for JCPS students” and saying it leaves them “trapped in a failing system.”
Supporters of the law also warned that overturning it could open the door to legal challenges that might undo merged city-county governments in Louisville and Lexington.
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