LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — It's only two days before election day and one local organization continues to spread the message 'Vote No On 2' by hosting a rally in Lexington Sunday afternoon.
The campaign 'Protect Our Schools Kentucky' is made up of several educators and parents who have been touring the state to make their voices heard. Many educators state Amendment 2 will only destroy the education system.
More than 20 people attended the rally to share their frustration for Amendment 2.
According to the Kentucky State Legislation website, Amendment 2 "gives parents choices in educational opportunities for their children" by allowing the General Assembly to provide financial support for the education costs of students from kindergarten through 12th grade outside of the system of common schools.
“Our public schools are already amazing. I mean here in Fayette County we already have special public program schools. We’re an academy school of our school, I teach students every day who want to become teachers. We have a medical academy, we have an engineering academy, like our public schools are doing amazing things. What we need is for Frankfort to support those schools and pour money into those schools," explains Amanda Sewell, a family consumer science teacher at Tates Creek High School.
“Moving forward our public schools would be even more underfunded than they are now. In Fayette County for example, Kentucky Center for Economic Policy did an analysis on what could happen if the legislator decided to use a Florida style voucher program; which they have very publicly said they would probably do. If that were to happen in Fayette County Public Schools, we could see a reduction in our budget by over 50-million dollars and over," said Jessica Hiler, the president of Fayette County Education Association and a kindergarten teacher within Fayette County Public Schools.
POSK states that if Amendment 2 passes, 90% of students that attend Fayette County Public Schools will be affected, more than 300 educators will lose their jobs and seven sections of the Kentucky constitute that fall under Amendment 2 will also be affected.
“The biggest misconception is we keeping hearing ‘this is what’s right for our kid’ ‘this is what’s right for teacher's but as a teacher and a parent, this is not what’s right for our kids it’s not what’s right for our teachers. We need people to go out and vote no on Amendment 2," Sewell says.
“Vote no. Vote no. Vote no on Amendment 2 because we need to protect our public schools. Protect Kentucky’s kids and really we need to all be working to move our public schools forwards not backwards. And that’s what Amendment 2 passing will do,” states Hiler.
The campaign's final stops on Monday before Election Day will be in Ashland, Elizabethtown and finally, Louisville.
Polls open at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 5 and close at 6:00 p.m. You can visit this website lexingtonky.gov/vote to know where to vote.
