Ludlow Independent School Superintendent Michael Borchers talked to board members last Thursday night at the regular school board meeting about legislation that was passed in last year’s legislative session, in 2021, and signed into law, but not due to be in effect until July 1, 2022.
It is called HB 563, or the Open Enrollment bill.
As he explained the legislation and what it does, a member of the audience asked if this legislation was a precursor to school choice.
“It is school choice,” Borchers said.
The new law specifies that “all school districts have to adopt a nonresident policy that governs the terms under which the district shall allow enrollment. Upon allowing nonresident pupils to enroll, the policy shall allow enrollment in any public school located in the district.”
This policy “shall not discriminate between nonresident pupils, but the district may recognize capacity, as determined by the district.”
“What it does is basically opens up the borders,” Borchers said. “There will be no more agreements between districts; any student can go to any school. This has many gray areas, and we have been told many of these gray issues might end up in litigation.”
He said districts generally have caps on how many students can be in a class, and how many students they can accept. Now they will have to have a buffer in each class for students who may enroll late.
They will have to have a method to annually determine capacity for enrollment. Districts have open enrollment up to a certain time, and then they keep a few spots open in case a family moves into the district and they have kids that have to be enrolled. Now they have to have a written policy on when the open enrollment stops, as well as the definite buffer in each classroom.
Capacity depends on the number of teachers and the teacher/student ratio. Districts have to decide how many teachers they have and need earlier in the year, and though it can be changed, it is more difficult.
One of the problems, other than an impossible task of trying to pre-determine how many students will decide to jump districts and enroll in another school, is that if a student decides to enroll in a new school on July 15, he or she cannot play sports in the new school for a calendar year, or until July 15 of the following year.
This has always been a rule, but now that borders are open, the rule is more important due to students who are athletes who might want to switch schools because of what they see as a better team. This has always been a rule, but now it is hard and fast rule throughout the state, with no exceptions.
The other major problem some school officials see with the new rule is that a school can’t charge tuition for the out-of-district students. If a student wants to go to another school, the student takes his SEEK money with them.
SEEK stands for Support Education Excellence in Kentucky and it is a method the state uses to assign each student an amount of money for his or her education. It is based on average daily attendance. But if a school charges a significant amount of tuition for out-of-district students, and the district depends on that amount in their budget to operate the school, even if the SEEK funds come with the student, it will cause a deficit in their budget.
Ludlow only charges $250 per student if they are out of district, but other schools’ charges can go up to $5,000.
For instance, Ludlow charges $250, but they receive $4,800 per student in SEEK money. In Fort Thomas, the tuition for out of district is $5,000 but they receive $2,200 per student in SEEK money because they have a lot of property in the district. If 10 students came from out of district to Fort Thomas, and they could not charge tuition, but would gain $2,200 for each student, the school would lose $28,000.
Jay Brewer, superintendent of Dayton Independent Schools, said he isn’t a fan of the legislation.
“I think with anything there are challenges and opportunities,” Brewer said. “So we have got to wait and see how some of this plays out. We might lose students, we might gain students. This is a whole new ball game. We are proud of the product we have here and we are fine having it stand on its own merits.”
Superintendent Borchers explained to his board members that although the bill passed in 2021, the state delayed the enforcement of the law so that superintendents could find a way to fix some of the items in the bill. He said although they met eight times last summer and came up with several suggestions, legislators did not act on the suggestions.
Bellevue Superintendent Robb Smith also spoke about the legislation.
“I think there are unintended consequences that were not considered,” he said. “In the rush to punish public schools the chaos that it will create is unfortunate.”
None of the superintendents spoke highly of the charter schools, an issue that was approved by the state legislature this year.
Brewer said charter schools could be challenged in court.
Smith came out strongly against charter schools.
“I am adamantly opposed to any charter and their privatization efforts,” he said. “Funding our public schools should be a priority.”
As for the open borders law, he advised more of a wait and see attitude.
“Open Borders unfortunately creates a negative situation for all of us,” Smith said. “But Northern Kentucky Superintendents are committed to work together to make it work the best they can. We are still trying to figure out the ramifications.”