House Bill 1 is now headed to the governor’s office.
Lawmakers fast-tracked the priority measure that would enroll Kentucky in a federal tax credit program, pushing it through both the House and Senate in just over a week.
Under the legislation, the secretary of state would handle opting Kentucky into the program, bypassing Gov. Andy Beshear.
The credit was created through the “One Big Beautiful Bill” in 2025. It allows donors to claim a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 when contributing to a nonprofit scholarship-granting organization. Those groups can then distribute funds to families for expenses such as private school tuition, tutoring and transportation.
Twenty-three states, most led by Republican governors, have already joined the program. The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, and Rep. TJ Roberts, R-Burlington, argue that without the measure, Kentucky would miss out on available funding.
Democrats who opposed the bill countered that the money would primarily benefit private or parochial schools and reflects broader Republican efforts to steer funds toward private education.
The Senate passed the bill 33-5 on Feb. 27. All Democratic senators voted against it except Sen. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, who supported the measure.
Beshear declined to say whether he would veto the bill during the Feb. 27 Team Kentucky meeting, but he reiterated his stance that “public dollars should stay in public schools.”
Republicans said they are not concerned about a potential veto, with several lawmakers indicating they would override it if necessary.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams voiced his support on X, thanking the General Assembly for passing the bill.
“It is a game-changer for education and I look forward to implementing it to help Kentucky kids,” Adams said.
Democratic senators cautioned colleagues before the vote, arguing the program would divert federal tax dollars from priorities such as Medicaid or defense and create a system of “haves and have-nots” in Kentucky’s schools.
“What this bill will do is make sure that we have an uneven playing field among the schools here in this commonwealth,” Sen. Reginald Thomas, D-Lexington, said.
Republicans responded that the initiative would benefit all students by allowing scholarship organizations to fund transportation, summer programs, private tutoring and more.
“I look at this as one of the finest things that has come out of (the Big Beautiful Bill), one of the finest things for the United States of America,” Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said. “Because what we’re doing is we’re pouring into education. All education, maybe even homeschool education, maybe even private school education, but all of our kids.”
School choice has long divided Kentucky lawmakers. In 2017, legislators approved a bill legalizing charter schools but did not establish a funding mechanism. In 2022, lawmakers passed a measure providing permanent funding, but courts struck it down in 2023, and the state Supreme Court upheld that ruling on Feb. 19.
In 2024, lawmakers placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would have allowed the legislature to use tax dollars for nonpublic education. Voters rejected the amendment, with all 120 counties voting against it.
Leave a Comment