The Wilting Rose: How Kentucky Students are Advocating for Education Reform in the Commonwealth

Blog Post | 113 KY. L. J. ONLINE | February 13, 2025

The Wilting Rose: How Kentucky Students are Advocating for Education Reform in the Commonwealth

By: Katie Nipper, Staff Editor, Vol. 113 

 In 1989, the Supreme Court of Kentucky issued the groundbreaking decision of Rose v. Council for Better Education, a school funding case that impacted education law across the country.[1] Rose declared Kentucky’s public school system unconstitutional and set the nationwide precedent for ensuring adequate and equitable education.[2] Now, over thirty years later, a group of student activists have sued the Commonwealth of Kentucky, asking the court to decide whether the state is meeting its constitutional mandate under Rose.[3] If the judiciary remains faithful to the principles of Rose, Kentucky courts should once again intervene to fix systemic educational deficiencies and reaffirm the Commonwealth’s obligation to provide an adequate and equitable education for all students.

The Supreme Court of the United States does not recognize education as a fundamental right under the Constitution of the United States, but in Rose, the Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled that not only is education a fundamental right in the Commonwealth, but an adequate, equitable, and efficient education is a fundamental right under the Kentucky Constitution.[4] To do so, the Court analyzed Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution, which says, “The General Assembly shall, by appropriate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State.”[5] Further, the court outlined seven capacities that make an education “adequate,” including but not limited to communication skills, vocational skills, and knowledge of cultural history and civic education.[6] In response to Rose, in 1990, the Kentucky legislature overhauled the public school system with the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which “contain[ed] three major reform components: curriculum, governance, and finance” and codified the seven Rose capacities.[7]

In 1990, before the implementation of KERA, there was a $3,489 (in 2022 dollars) per-pupil funding gap between the wealthiest and poorest school districts in Kentucky.[8] While initially, the implementation of KERA reduced the gap dramatically, the progress did not last.[9] By 2022, the gap was back up to $3,902 per-pupil.[10] As the current, student-led complaint states, Kentucky “was the national model for effective education reform in the 1990s, [and] has now fallen behind in educational practices and accomplishments.”[11]

The Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT), a student-led group, recognizing this deterioration, launched the “Rose Revival Campaign” which consisted of community forums to help research the decline in public education funding in Kentucky.[12] Throughout this campaign, KSVT surveyed and met over 25,000 students, hosted community forums, and participated in multiple levels of school committees.[13] On January 14, 2025, KSVT filed a seventy-one page lawsuit asserting the Commonwealth of Kentucky “failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide all students with an adequate and equitable public education.”[14] The suit focuses on deficiencies in all seven of the Rose capacities.[15] Some of the student-plaintiffs wrote an op-ed in the Courier Journal noting that “glaring disparities in funding and resources, teacher shortages, inadequate mental health support and outdated curricula are leaving Kentucky students – especially those in underserved communities – without the opportunities we deserve.”[16] As KSVT creatively submits, “the legacy of Rose has wilted” and the KSVT v. Commonwealth of Kentucky case will hopefully bring it back to life.[17]

The consequences of judicial inaction in this case would be profound. KSVT presented extensive evidence that the education that students receive does not fulfill the capacities laid out in Rose to meet the standard of an efficient and adequate education.[18] The complaint highlights declining student proficiency rates in reading and math, the widening gap in per-pupil funding between districts, and the lack of a meaningful civic education.[19] Many students are graduating without sufficient knowledge of economic, social, and political systems–undermining their ability to be informed voters and civic participants. Without judicial intervention, Kentucky’s education system risks continuing its decline, leaving current and future students without the capacities to succeed in their future endeavors.

The Kentucky Student Voice Team lawsuit presents the courts with an opportunity to do what Rose demanded: hold the state accountable for providing a truly adequate and equitable education, as it is every student’s fundamental right under the Kentucky Constitution. By ordering the General Assembly to fulfill its constitutional duties regarding public education, the courts can reinforce the Rose ruling, restore the integrity of Kentucky’s public school system, and ensure that future generations of students receive the education they are constitutionally guaranteed. The Kentucky judiciary has already established a strong precedent for defending students’ educational rights. Now, it is again up to the courts to prove those rights were not just a promise made in 1989 but a commitment that remains enforceable today. If the courts remain true to Rose, the Kentucky Student Voice Team should prevail in their efforts to revive the legacy of Rose.

[1] See Bruce Schreiner, Kentucky students challenging whether the state is meeting its constitutional duty on education, Associated Press (Jan. 15, 2025, 3:25 PM), https://apnews.com/article/kentucky-education-lawsuit-993fdf10e6d2e513e288aa1bd6ba000f.

[2] See id.

[3] See Rose Revival Campaign, Kentucky Student Voice Team, https://www.ksvt.org/rose.

[4] See San Antonio Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973) (holding that education was not a fundamental right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment); Rose v. Council for Better Educ. Inc., 790 S.W.2d 186, 212 (Ky. 1989) (holding that education is a fundamental right under the Kentucky Constitution).

[5] KY Const. §183.

[6] Rose, 790 S.W.2d at 212.

[7] C. Scott Trimble & Andrew C. Forsaith, Achieving Equity and Excellence in Kentucky Education, 28 U. Mich. J. L. Reform 599, 610 (1995).

[8] See Jason Bailey, Dustin Pugel, Pam Thomas, & Ashley Spalding, The Funding Gap Between Kentucky’s Wealthy and Poor School Districts Is Now Worse Than Levels Declared Unconstitutional, Ky. Ctr. for Econ. Pol’y (Aug. 23, 2023), https://kypolicy.org/kentucky-school-funding-returns-to-pre-kera-levels/.

[9] See id.

[10] Id.

[11] Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) v. Kentucky, No. 24-CI-00026 at 2 (Franklin Circuit Ct., filed Jan. 17, 2025).

[12] Rose Revival Campaign, supra note 3.

[13] Ellen Mueller, Ivy Littleton, & Khoa Ta, We’re students who care about public schools. That’s why we’re suing Kentucky, Courier J. (Jan. 21, 2025, 5:09 AM), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2025/01/21/ky-students-sue-state-legislature-funding-teacher-pay-class-sizes-bus-transportation-mental-health/77749246007/.

[14] Students File Lawsuit Against Commonwealth of Kentucky Demanding a Quality Public Education, Kentucky Student Voice Team (Jan. 14, 2025, 3:00 PM), https://www.ksvt.org/updates/students-file-lawsuit-against-commonwealth-of-kentucky-demanding-a-quality-public-education.

[15] KSVT v. Kentucky at 15.

[16] Mueller, Littleton, & Ta, supra note 13.

[17] Rose Revival Campaign, supra note 3.

[18] See generally KSVT v. Kentucky at 15–18 (breaking down each capacity and how Kentucky’s education system is failing at providing students with that capacity).

[19] See id. at 13, 49, and 20–25.