Frankfort, Ky.—This evening, the Institute for Justice (IJ) announced that it stands ready to defend against an anticipated legal challenge to Kentucky’s newly enacted Education Opportunity Account (EOA) Program by opponents of educational choice. Earlier this evening, the Kentucky General Assembly overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of the legislation creating the program.
The EOA Program authorizes a tax credit for private donations to nonprofit account-granting organizations, which, in turn, provide funds to private accounts for low- and middle-income families to use for expenses incurred in the education of their children. The General Assembly created the program “to give more flexibility and choices in education to Kentucky residents and to address disparities in educational options available to students.”
“The Education Opportunity Account Program provides desperately needed options and opportunity to Kentucky families,” said IJ Senior Attorney Michael Bindas. “The program is perfectly constitutional, and the Institute for Justice stands ready to defend it.”
IJ Attorney Milad Emam added, “The need for educational opportunity is greater now than ever, and the Institute for Justice will not let opponents of choice take it away.”
IJ is the nation’s leading legal defender of educational choice programs, having won numerous litigation fights, including three at the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was the landmark decision Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue in 2020. IJ is currently defending choice programs in Nevada, North Carolina and Tennessee and currently challenging the exclusion of religious options from choice programs in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.