I have concepts of a newsletter.
Hey, y’all, happy THURSDAY! Yes, I have finally managed to get an edition of The Gallery Pass written and out on the day it is technically supposed to come out! (Please don’t cheer for the bare minimum, thx.)
This means we will have a shorter newsletter this week because I don’t have to fit in like three weeks worth of political news.
As always, a few programming notes that are lightly copy-and-pasted from the last newsletter (which is right here if you missed it):
We are even closer to the 2025 legislative session, so I will slowly start ramping things up again (so, picture more regular newsletters and a return to multiple newsletters a week).
Please drop any suggestions you have in this survey. Yes, you can fill it out twice (or three times).
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OK, let us begin.
Back again on the school choice amendment beat
Didn’t we just talk about TV ads for the school choice amendment? Yes, but now there’s another one — this one from the opponents.
Protect Our Schools KY’s new ad focuses less on *why* specifically Kentuckians should vote against Amendment 2, and more on all the things we could do with more money for public education.
It does not feature a controversial pastor-educator. Sorry.
ICYMI: Here’s my recap of the pro-Amendment 2 ad that dropped recently from the last newsletter.
Who exactly is funding the whole Amendment 2 thing?
Some funding numbers recently dropped, yay, so now we have a bit of an idea of who/what is funding what is sure to be an incredibly expensive and lengthy election cycle.
Campaign finance wizard Tom Loftus wrote an in-depth look at where donations are coming from that I highly recommend, but here’s a quick summary.
Which side is fundraising more? As of rn, and it is still early in terms of campaign finance, the anti-Amendment 2 folks — aka the aforementioned Protect Our Schools — are beating the pro-Amendment 2 side.
Protect Our Schools has raised a little over $3 million, while “Kentucky Students First” has raised around $1.5 million.
Who is funding the supporters? Unsurprisingly, existing pro-school choice groups are giving to the pro-Amendment 2 folks. I know, I know, shocking.
There are also some big development names on the top donor list, especially from Northern Kentucky. If this seems puzzling to you, may I redirect you to the whole 2022 debacle involving charter school bill votes and a massive real estate development?
And who is funding the opposition? Again, shockingly, teachers unions are playing a big funding role in opposing school choice.
The Council for Better Education, which challenged both of Kentucky’s recent school choice attempts in court and won, also made the top donors list.
Speaking of constitutional amendments
I’ve been promising y’all for months that I would do some in-depth-ish looks at this year’s two proposed constitutional amendments, and that time has finally come (yee-haw).
In my latest round of work for Queer Kentucky, I broke both amendments down so you know exactly what’s going on as of rn.
Here’s my piece on Amendment 1 on non-citizen voting, which we haven’t really talked too much about because 1. not a lot of people have been discussing it 2. because it is pointless and 3. I don’t enjoy wasting your time.
And here’s my piece on Amendment 2, juuuuust in case we haven’t been discussing school choice enough for your liking.
Please, do give them a read!
Quick hits
Monday is the deadline to print ballots, so your sample ballots should be online for you to start reviewing and researching soon. More on that next week.
The should-we-break-up-JCPS task force met for another public comment period in Louisville Tuesday. I’m gonna be blunt: It was pretty boring and repeated many of the topics from the first hearing, which I covered earlier this week.
But the good news is that it was only around an hour long. You can watch the replay on the LRC’s YouTube.
No, I didn’t watch the presidential debate. I merely saw and heard a few of the memes online.
Things to put in your planner for the week
We have a pretty heavy week in Frankfort coming up. Here’s some of what I’ll be watching:
Monday: We have the JCPS task force meeting at 1 p.m. in Frankfort. They’ll be chatting about discipline and early childhood in JCPS, plus overall enrollment and attendance trends.
Tuesday: The Interim Joint Committee on Education meets at 11 a.m. in Frankfort to have another conversation about DEI in higher ed. Reps from UK, U of L, EKU, WKU and Murray State are slated to attend.
Thursday: Gov. Andy Beshear has returned to a semi-normal schedule for his weekly Team Kentucky press conferences, so pencil that in for 12:30 p.m.
As always, you can watch the livestream on the LRC’s YouTube or KET. Beshear’s livestream is on his own YouTube. The LRC’s weekly calendar with the most accurate schedule of meetings and often links to meeting materials is right here.
Here’s the full schedule for the week. I believe the Juvenile Justice meeting has been canceled, plus maybe one of the budget review subcommittees (that’s what BR stands for, BTW), but this is pretty much it.
Counting down to…
5 days until National Voter Registration Day. (Sept. 17) (You can register to vote right here.)
25 days until the deadline to register to vote in Kentucky. (Oct. 7) (Again, you can register to vote right here.)
49 days until no-excuse, in-person early voting starts in Kentucky/Halloween. (Oct. 31)
54 days until Election Day. (Nov. 5)
106 days until The Gallery Pass’ first birthday. (Dec. 27)
117 days until Kentucky’s 2025 legislative session. (Jan. 7, 2025)
Where else to find me
Twitter: Follow The Gallery Pass for all newsletter-related updates, and my personal Twitter for that + everything else.
TikTok: Hi.
Instagram: Present.
Venmo: … if you’re interested.
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OK, I think that’s it. Fill out that survey up top and talk soon! Toodles!
178 miles away people are eating cats and zero mentions here. Sad.