During elementary school in Long Island, N.Y., Luisa Sanchez was thriving in a school full of English learners like herself. In particular, she excelled at math.
But just before Sanchez entered 6th grade, she and her parents moved to rural Danville, Ky. Sanchez quickly realized that two American public schools could look vastly different.
She was the only Hispanic student, and the only immigrant, in any of her classes. Instead of a dedicated classroom space for English learners, her school sent those students to the library for instruction.
Most devastating, she said, her teachers never gave her a math placement exam. She had to take a summer math course to qualify for geometry in 8th grade鈥攁nd only after she finished geometry did she learn she could have advanced even further.
鈥淚 passed, I got an A, it was great,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then, it turns out, I found out there was even another level higher. I remember coming home crying.鈥�
Sanchez, 16, now sees this experience as one of many examples of her school letting her down. But she later realized it wasn鈥檛 that the teachers didn鈥檛 care enough about her. Shortcomings of the education system were the product of insufficient resources鈥攁nd it鈥檚 a statewide problem.
That鈥檚 the complaint at the heart of a in the Franklin County circuit court against the state of Kentucky. Sanchez, now a junior in high school, and 11 of her K-12 peers from across the state are the lead plaintiffs, along with the Kentucky Student Voice Team, an education advocacy group led by K-12 students.
The suit alleges that state officials have fallen short of the promises they made in the early 1990s, when the Kentucky supreme court declared the state鈥檚 approach to public school funding unconstitutional, and ordered sweeping reform.
Students now argue the state must provide robust educational opportunities that were previously mandated by the state supreme court鈥攊ncluding literacy and civics instruction, mental health services, arts education, and college and career readiness initiatives. Those investments are essential no matter the cost, the complaint says.
鈥淲e are facing this crisis of decades of mismanagement in Frankfort by politicians, where we have these historically underfunded and under-resourced schools,鈥� said Peter Jefferson, 18, a high school senior in Lexington who鈥檚 on the Kentucky Student Voice Coalition鈥檚 policy team. 鈥淭he students of Kentucky鈥攁nd the future students of Kentucky鈥攄eserve more.鈥�
The group鈥檚 campaign will extend beyond the lawsuit to a series of public engagement sessions in which students will interview policy experts and education advocates to raise awareness of disparities and shortcomings in Kentucky鈥檚 public schools. Those sessions have already been taking place across the state.
The Kentucky attorney general鈥檚 office didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment in time for publication. A spokesperson for Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, sent a statement that didn鈥檛 address the lawsuit directly.
鈥淭he governor feels strongly that more funding is necessary for K-12 public schools,鈥� in particular for priorities like raising teacher pay and establishing universal pre-K, wrote the spokesperson, James Hatchett.
Kentucky is one of many states with ongoing legal fights over K-12 education resources
Students and their advocates in Kentucky are entering the legal arena alongside peers in more than a dozen other states where consequential litigation over core issues of school finance and operations is ongoing.
The supreme courts of and North Carolina, and a judge in , are expected to rule in the coming months on whether their respective states鈥� school funding systems are unconstitutional.
In Wisconsin, the state鈥檚 highest court will rule on whether the governor had the authority to mandate 400 years of annual increases to state aid for schools.
Plaintiffs in five states鈥�, , , , and 鈥攈ave filed lawsuits in the last year-and-a-half aiming to overturn policies that let parents spend public funds on private school, on the grounds that they violate state constitutions and dent public school revenue. A judge in Utah could . Ohio鈥檚 trial will .
Meanwhile, funding and maintenance for school facilities are under the microscope as well.
A ruling from a superior court in Arizona over whether the state鈥檚 approach to funding school facilities work violates the state constitution and puts poor districts at a disadvantage. A similar after the state supreme court declined to take it up before a district court examines the latest evidence.
On a smaller scale, school boards in California are pushing to . A school district in New Jersey is suing the state to argue that funding reforms stemming from a previous adequacy lawsuit have . And, in Idaho, a school district has been over whether an obscure change to the wording of a state law could cost the district millions of dollars intended for repairing school buildings.
Even more states鈥攊ncluding , , and 鈥攁re trying to craft policies that address verdicts from similar lawsuits.
New lawsuit in Kentucky represents a fresh approach to education litigation
Nearly every state in recent decades has been the subject of in K-12 education funding. The 1989 Rose decision in Kentucky is the 鈥済randdaddy of all adequacy cases鈥� said Michael Rebell, a professor of education law at Columbia University Teachers College, and a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the newly filed Kentucky case.
Many of those cases have resulted in victories for education advocates, with courts demanding that states invest billions more per year in K-12 schools. But states鈥� efforts to comply with those court orders often take years to take shape, and typically require persistent advocacy from the groups behind the original litigation.
The latest lawsuit in Kentucky marks the first attempt to preempt the inevitable slog that court-mandated school finance reform typically entails, Rebell said.
Unlike in previous adequacy cases, the focus of the new Kentucky lawsuit is not simply to increase funding for schools across the board.
Plaintiffs laid out a long list of problems with Kentucky鈥檚 education system, including low rates of reading proficiency, high rates of mental health challenges among students, and poor performance in state-by-state rankings of K-12 education quality. During the forthcoming public engagement sessions, plaintiffs and their advocates plan to begin shaping plans for improving these shortcomings.
Three decades ago, Kentucky 鈥渉ad this great decision. It was initially implemented as well as you could ever expect. But years later they鈥檝e fallen behind,鈥� Rebell said, referring to the Rose decision. 鈥淭he kids have this constitutional right, and the kids living today should be entitled to what their parents, and almost their grandparents, were benefiting from back in the 1990s.鈥�
He was also inspired, he said, by the 2020 ruling from a federal judge that the U.S. Constitution includes no right to a civics education. Rebell believes that fight, like school funding before it, ought to move to the states鈥攎ore than 30 of which reference civics education in either their constitutions or in court decisions interpreting them.
Kentucky, with its mixture of elected state-level officials from both parties, proved the logical place to test these new strategies. The recent election victory for public school advocates against proponents of private school choice affirmed that decision, Rebell said.
This lawsuit鈥檚 focus on implementation and results may set the template for future adequacy lawsuits in other states, Rebell said. Already, he said, an has zeroed in on whether racial balance in classrooms ought to be considered an essential feature of a constitutionally sound education system.
Students are intimately involved in sharing their experiences for the complaint
Also, unlike in previous adequacy cases, students are involved in the Kentucky lawsuit not only as plaintiffs standing in for the state鈥檚 K-12 population, but as lead authors on the complaint itself.
The Kentucky Student Voice Coalition recruited a diverse set of teenagers who attend public schools to contribute their experiences.
They鈥檙e not just offering a few reflections and standing by waiting for case developments, according to Rebell. They鈥檙e attending meetings with the lawyers, offering suggestions for issues to raise, and enhancing legal arguments with insights from their own experience. They even have access to edit documents.
鈥淚鈥檓 the expert here. I have spent 13 years in our education system and they鈥檙e fresh in my mind,鈥� Jefferson said. 鈥淚 have all this energy where I want to make things better for myself and those who come after me. That is something that drives me.鈥�
In one instance, a student pushed strongly to include a section Rebell himself says he might otherwise have overlooked, highlighting inadequate school transportation services stemming from low pay and poor working conditions for bus drivers. The gaps in bus service cost many students鈥攑articularly in rural areas鈥攈ours of time in school.
For the student plaintiffs, helping craft a lawsuit in the lineage of similar ones across the country has led to new educational opportunities. Sanchez and her peers have been invited twice to guest-lecture at Harvard Law School.
鈥淛ust seeing how law students out of state were very passionate about this, it made the work feel so much more real,鈥� Sanchez said.
