Kentucky Students File Groundbreaking Lawsuit Against the State for Denial of Constitutionally Protected Educational Opportunities

The Kentucky Student Voice Team (KVST), a youth-led organization focused on advancing educational opportunities for young people, has filed a lawsuit in Frankfort against the state for failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide all students with an adequate and equitable public education.

“The Kentucky Constitution guarantees every student the right to a quality public education,” said Khoa Ta, a policy coordinator for the Kentucky Student Voice Team and a junior from Daviess County High School. “This right was clarified in the 1989 Rose v. Council for Better Education decision. But today, the legacy of Rose is wilted as its promises have gone unfulfilled for far too many Kentucky students.”

Michael A. Rebell, founder and executive of the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, is serving as co-counsel for KVST. Rebell’s legal work, spanning over more than three decades, includes some of the most influential educational rights cases on behalf of underserved students and their families. Since 2022, he has been an advisor with KVST as part of a broader collaboration with Michael Gregory and the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab at Harvard University. Together, they advised KVST on a two-year public engagement effort called the “Rose Revival” discussions. Rebell and Gregory partnered with a Louisville-based firm, Kaplan, Johnson, Abate, & Bird, to prepare the lawsuit.

The 70-page complaint highlights critical issues that undermine the quality of education across the Commonwealth. Just 41% of Kentucky 8th graders are proficient or above in reading. Kentucky also lacks a civics course requirement, leaving students unprepared for civic responsibilities. Despite a mental health crisis among school-aged children, many Kentucky schools lack adequate counseling resources, with some schools having no counselors at all. Arts programs are scarce, and there are wide disparities in student achievement across districts.

Michael A. Rebell founded the Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College in 2005 and has supported education rights lawsuits across the country on behalf of students and their families over the past 30 years. Most notably, he led Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York, arguing successfully that the state's school funding system deprived students in New York City of adequate educational resources. 

The Center for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, works to guarantee every child a meaningful educational opportunity to graduate from high school prepared for college, careers, and engaged civic participation. Founded in 2005 by Michael A. Rebell, CEE uses legal advocacy, academic research, and collective action to achieve foundational change. Learn more at https://cee.tc.columbia.edu/.

The Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) unites young people from across the state as partners in research, policy, and storytelling to build more just and democratic schools and communities. Since its inception in 2012, the team has engaged thousands of Kentuckians in efforts to elevate student perspectives in education decision making at the school, district, and state levels. Learn more at KSVT.org.