State Auditor Allison Ball says the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is violating the U.S. Constitution in the way it treats faith-based preschools.
Ball’s office conducted a special examination of the department as required by the Kentucky General Assembly.
In the more than 500-page report, the Auditor’s Office says the KDE, “…allows secular, but not religious, private programs to receive state funding, which violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”
Ball told Kentucky Today the KDE regulations essentially require religious preschools to become secular.
“It's a detailed regulation, and it says that if a religious institution owns the building that the preschool is using, then they can't get state funds,” Ball said. “The only way they could get state funds is if there's a separate entity, it's incorporated in a different way. It's not connected with the faith-based institution.”
Ball said the KDE regulation goes on to say that any preschool that incorporates religious teaching is ineligible for state dollars.
“So that wipes out a lot of preschools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and a lot of good ones too,” she said.
“You have the Jewish preschool in Louisville. You have, of course, Southern Baptist preschools all over the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Many, many churches, many faith-based organizations have these types of preschools, and it totally excludes them. And under the U.S. Constitution, that is actually unconstitutional.”
The report points to recent Supreme Court decisions, including a 2020 ruling in which the Court said a “State need not subsidize private education. But once a State decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”
Ball said it is unclear how the KDE plans to respond to the Auditor’s findings.
“What they've essentially said on most things is, ‘hey, we're going to take what you've said under consideration, and we're going to review what we're doing going forward.’ So, I think it remains to be seen what they'll do with that. But most of the interactions have actually been pretty good.”
The report goes on to say that the KDE's method of rating preschools is misleading for parents. A high preschool rating from the state does not necessarily correlate to how well the school prepares children for kindergarten.
“There was not a correlation with a high ranking in this assessment and kindergarten readiness. So, one of the big things we talk about when it comes to preschool is helping these little children be kindergarten ready,” said Ball.
“It's not a daycare. It's preparing them for kindergarten. We even looked at the top 10 best assessed, highest quality preschools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. and they did not show a correlation between that high rating and kindergarten readiness.”
Ball said the preschool findings are of particular importance in light of the current debate over whether the state should require mandatory preschool.
The report is also critical of the KDE’s fiscal management, the lack of measurable benchmarks for gauging student success and a lack of oversight by the State Board of Education.
In a statement, Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher said, “We look forward to utilizing the APA’s [Auditor of Public Accounts] final report to identify opportunities for future growth and plans for continued improvement in service of Kentucky’s public-school students. We welcome the opportunity to work with the Kentucky General Assembly for the legislative changes necessary to accomplish recommendations within the report. “
Ball said she hopes the audit sends a clear message to parents.
“I think it's really important for parents to be involved,” she said. “The more parents are involved the better the education will be.
“There are all kinds of ways to school in Kentucky. There are private schools, there are public schools, there's homeschools. And I think at all levels, you need to have parental involvement. You need to have parents engaged.
“If we have parents who are at the table, who know what's happening, that's going to be a tremendous accountability. It's going to be a great incentive for excellence. It's going to do so much, and it's good for the kids. The kids need to have mom and dad very involved.”
Ball said her office is also preparing to conduct a special examination of the state’s two largest school districts, Jefferson County and Fayette County.
Read a summary of the Auditor’s findings here.
Read the full report here.
Watch the entire interview with Auditor Ball on the Kentucky Today podcast.
File Photo
.png?lang=en-US&width=600&height=438&ext=.png)
