The Nation - News from June 9, 1989

The state Supreme Court declared Kentucky’s system of public schooling unconstitutional and ordered the Legislature to create a new system. By permitting a wide gap between poor and wealthier school districts, the Legislature failed to meet its constitutional duty, the court ruled. Rich and poor alike “must be given the same opportunity and access to an adequate education,” the court ruled in a case brought four years ago by a coalition of 66 “property poor” districts. Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, a critic of the state’s school management scheme, praised the decision. “We’ve been talking about changing the management culture within the system,” Wilkinson said. “We never imagined that we’d have an opportunity to remake the entire system.”