Commonwealth Policy Center

Earlier this year, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a school choice bill known as Education Opportunity Accounts. This allows individuals and corporations to donate to a scholarship fund for low and middle-income students and receive a tax credit. The law was struck down by a Franklin Circuit Court judge, but Attorney General Daniel Cameron is challenging the ruling that blocked this law from taking effect. Anti-school choice activists say this law will drain public school dollars. But this isn’t the case. That’s because no public funds are used for this program. Money from individuals and corporations are sent directly to the fund and never enter the state coffers. Their argument is a stretch as they imply that the tax benefit is somehow public tax dollars. But as one school choice attorney said, their argument has been: “Your money is your own until the government collects it.”