High-dollar lobbyists are moving bills in Frankfort
By John Schaaf
As the last days of the Kentucky General Assembly unfold, big-dollar lobbyists in Frankfort are pushing their most controversial bills toward passage.
Lobbyists recently shoved their private school voucher amendment across the finish line to set up a massive fight this fall between Kentucky taxpayers and a handful of multi-billionaires who probably couldn’t find this state on a map.
The school voucher amendment passed the House and Senate and goes straight to the November election ballot. This costly proposal would allow politicians to funnel taxpayer money into private schools run by businesses and churches.
From now until November, one side of the election fight will be out-of-state billionaire voucher promoters who want Kentucky tax dollars to flow straight into private bank accounts.
On the other side will be Kentuckians who pay enough taxes, and don’t want to pay more for other people’s private schools. They are businesses and individuals, and their state and local taxes support public schools in every county.
They don’t want their local schools to lose jobs, or cut high school sports, marching bands, science fairs, or other extracurricular activities while private schools grab scarce public dollars.
A few extremely rich people have spent liberally on lobbying and campaign gifts to politicians to push vouchers in Kentucky and other states. They make more from stock dividends in one day than most Kentuckians earn from years of working.
In Frankfort, the billionaire and church-based lobbying push comes from groups like Americans for Prosperity (Arlington, Va.), Catholic Conference of Kentucky, EdChoice (Indianapolis, In.), Excellence in Education in Action (Tallahassee, Fl.), Family Foundation, Heritage Action for America (Washington, D.C.), Institute for Justice (Arlington, Va.), National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (Washington, D.C.), and Yes, Every Kid, Inc. (Arlington, Va.).
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Yes Every Kid, Inc. (YEK) are tax-exempt and funded by the billionaire owners of Koch Industries, an international corporation involved in chemicals, natural gas, oil, plastics, and other businesses. The Koch network has spent billions on lobbying and campaign contributions to influence politicians all over the U.S., and they’re also aligned with EdChoice, Institute for Justice, and many other privatization promoters.
Excellence in Education in Action and Heritage Action for America, like AFP and YEK, are 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations. They can develop relationships with politicians by pouring dark money into campaigns, then hiring armies of lobbyists to persuade politicians to support radical ideas like school vouchers.
The Catholic Conference and the Family Foundation are also tax-exempt, but they want Kentuckians who do pay taxes to pay for vouchers to generate income for schools operated by four Roman Catholic dioceses (Archdiocese of Louisville and the Dioceses of Covington, Lexington, and Owensboro) and for Christian schools that would also get state handouts. They’ll accept millions of tax dollars, but they’ll pay little or no taxes themselves.
While the churches are motivated to get Kentucky tax dollars, AFP and the other national organizations are motivated by their scheme to privatize public services. Many of the groups are located in and around the lobbyist swamp in Washington, D.C., but they lobby all over the U.S., and they’re backed by billionaires like the Kochs, the Bradley Foundation, DeVos Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and other privatization backers.
During this year’s campaign, they’ll pump streams of cash into TV commercials and social media, trying to force Kentucky taxpayers to pay for private and religious schools, on top of what they’re already paying for public schools.
The billionaires and church lobbyists call it “choice,” but if it passes, taxpayers will have no choice, and politicians will spend outrageous amounts of public money on private and religious schools – mostly in urban areas.
Except for their lobbyists, the billionaires don’t know anybody in Kentucky, and they don’t care that Kentuckians will pay more taxes when politicians siphon hundreds of millions of dollars out of the state budget into private schools.
Vouchers are busting budgets in states like Arizona, Florida, and Indiana, where most of the voucher handouts go to people who already send their kids to private schools. If that happens in Kentucky, local school boards will have to raise taxes to pay increasing costs, and school jobs and extracurricular activities will be on the chopping block.
John Schaaf is an attorney and co-author of “The Hidden History of Kentucky Political Scandals” (History Press). His email address is John.Schaaf1975@gmail.com
Rich get Richer and the Poor get screwed the MAGA Way. Wonder how Philly voted on this?
I understand what your saying about the voucher program. I will agree their is some concern about how it will effect communities. On the other side our public schools continually fail our children. It’s not a funding problem but a rot from within. The teacher union protects terrible teachers. The schools teach a curriculum that don’t prepare our children to even do basic math, writing, and reading skills. Schools spend to much money and time on sports and not enough on things the kids need to learn. Schools can teach all the bad in the world but can’t teach good core Christian values. Our kids learn world history before their own state and country history. Our kids don’t know or read the declaration of independence or the bill of rights. So the public schools fail the communities. This is why voucher programs, private schools, Christian schools, etc are growing popularity among parents. If I send my kid to a private school etc why don’t the public dollars follow my child? If I home school why does the local school still get funds for my child? If I pay for my child’s education out of pocket why can’t I be exempt from paying school taxes? The way it is now I pay school taxes but if I send my child somewhere besides public school my child loses out. If public schools did what we needed for our kids then most people wouldn’t be looking at these other options. Let the money follow the child. If that means voucher programs or something else then why not try it out.
Why should I pay for your kids schooling and I don’t have no kids in school?
This is nothing but going to screw the poor kids. Now if they would give the poor kids the SAME opportunity as public schools does that means transporting them to school and back home and NO religious test then I would be ok with it competition makes a better product.
Let’s be honest about this it’s all about busting the teacher unions up the republican party have been for decades trying to bust all unions.
We are heading toward a country where if you don’t believe in christianity then you are the enemy. The constitution says freedom of religion that’s it. About 60% or more of the founding fathers bought and sold other human beings and now the MAGA crew want’s you to believe we were founded on being a christian nation. Exodus 21:16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
The black slave traders in Africa caught and sold the slaves DA. Stop whinning. Its over. Pay the reparations from your welfare check. The purpose of unions has passed. Unions are the cause of high prices on everything. Especially cars and construction. The right to work is self explanatory just like MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.