Americans for Prosperity (AFP) hosted an Amendment 2 support rally with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, his wife Kelley Paul and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Monday, Oct. 28 at La Gala in Bowling Green.

Amendment 2 states, “The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside of the system of common schools.” Sen. Rand and Kelley Paul have both been strong advocates and supporters of Amendment 2 and school choice for Kentucky. Cameron has also strongly advocated for the amendment to pass.

Cameron started off the speech by discussing why he advocates for Amendment 2.

“This isn’t about saying anything about old schools,” Cameron said. “This is about, again, making sure that every child has their needs met, that every child has their God-given ability and opportunity to flourish and thrive in this commonwealth.”

Cameron said he was grateful to Sen. Paul and Kelley Paul, setting them up for their speeches as he told the crowd what they stand for by supporting Amendment 2.

“I do know what we’re going to hear a lot about, and that is freedom of educational choice, freedom to make your own decisions about your children’s education and freedom to empower our future generations, and that’s what we all stand for here this evening,” Cameron said.

Sen. Paul said he thinks political left-leaning people  “claim to care about minorities among us, and yet they don’t” because there continues to be violence and drugs in public schooling with nowhere else for kids to go.

“The thing is, you ought to have a choice,” Paul said. “You may have a religious objection. You may have a religious need for your children. You may just want to teach them at home.”

Sen. Paul said this all comes back to individual liberty and the freedom to make individual choices.

“Ultimately, this is about the individual liberty to be free to make your own educational choices, but it’s also fundamentally about the philosophical concept that when you work and are paid, the money is yours, not the governors,” Sen. Paul said.

Kelley Paul said “nothing could be more important” than talking about the future of the people and the education for the children in Kentucky.

“Our support for Amendment 2 is in no way a criticism of our teachers and administrators,” Kelley Paul said. “We have a lot of good ones in Kentucky, and Amendment 2 is not going to change that. What Amendment 2 will do, though, is give us an opportunity to have a voice because while we have some great schools and some great teachers in Kentucky, it’s not working in every aspect of Kentucky.”

Kelley Paul said that in every city in Kentucky, some public schools struggle with low test scores and violence. She said it “is not fair to ask those kids to go to a school where they really have no choice and no opportunity” for their future.

“It’s time for us to demand accountability and there are a lot of people spreading misinformation about this,” Kelley Paul said. “Why? Because they want to protect the status quo, and let’s face it, the status quo is not working for most kids in Kentucky.”

Sen. Paul and Kelley Paul told the crowd multiple times Amendment 2 “does not take a penny” out of public education. Kelley Paul said Amendment 2 does not change the constitutional commitment to public education and will not take money allocated to public schools.

“Amendment 2, as it is written, will only do one thing which will allow us, we the people, to have a voice,” Kelley Paul said. “It will allow our legislature, our democratically elected representatives, to be able to craft K-12 programs in the future to give people more choice and kids more opportunities. That is all it does. It just opens the door. We hear a lot about democracy in this election. This is what democracy looks like.”

Heather LeMire, the Kentucky state director of AFP, said she chose to do this event to get people really excited about voting for Amendment 2 before Election Day. She said they knocked on over 200,000 doors and talked to voters across the state about the issue.

“We really just want there to be freedom for parents to be able to make their choice for their own children,” LeMire said. “Right now, the only parents who have a choice are the ones with financial means to be able to send their children to private school, but the kids who are in the lower socioeconomic situation are not able to do that, and so we want it to be available to all children in the state.”

Gary Houchens, WKU educational leadership professor and event attendee, said he traveled across the state advocating for Amendment 2. He has spoken on a few panels with Kelley Paul over the past few weeks trying to promote the amendment.

Houchens said he learned a long time ago that no matter how good a school is, it can’t be the perfect fit for every child. He said every family, regardless of their income, deserves the opportunity to be able to choose the school that is best fit for their child.

“That’s what Amendment 2 will do for Kentucky,” Houchens said. “It will remove a barrier that the courts have put in place that prevents Kentucky from joining 48 other states that have already adopted policies that empower families with their education options.”

News Reporter Abigail Vickers can be contacted at [email protected].