Opinion ID: 2429047
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Problem Four

Text: The fourth problem in Brady was that a strict public health and safety analysis was flawed, because payments were withheld from some students based upon the particular private or parochial school they chose to attend. However, as noted above, the record demonstrates that Resolution 34 no longer requires a tuition ceiling for private or parochial schools to receive transportation subsidies from the Fiscal Court. Even though the public health and safety issues from Brady are not present under Resolution 34, a public health and safety analysis demonstrates that the Resolution, in its application, is fatally flawed. Appellees correctly contend that in Nichols v. Henry, Ky., 301 Ky. 434, 191 S.W.2d 930 (1945), the Court upheld KRS 158.115 as constitutional on its face. Furthermore, Appellees cite Rawlings v. Butler, Ky., 290 S.W.2d 801, 807 (1956), in support of their positions. However, Rawlings specifically stated that in Nichols v. Henry ...., we upheld the constitutionality of this 1944 Act as one not designed to aid secular or private schools, but to protect all children from the hazards of the highway who under our compulsory attendance law were forced to attend school. (Emphasis in original). Therefore, we agree with Appellees that, in the past, KRS 158.115 was held to be constitutional in its plain language. However, Appellees ignore the fact that facial constitutionality does not guarantee that the application will be constitutional. I emphasize that our holding in Rawlings stressed that aid must be available to protect all children from the hazards of the highway, and not just parochial school students. Moreover, the record shows that under Resolution 24, the repealed predecessor of Resolution 34, the vast majority of the Fiscal Court's funds would have been allocated to the public schools based upon the school's application and the number of students requiring bus transportation. Faced with this apparently undesirable result, the Fiscal Court instituted a new program based upon the newly-enacted Resolution 34, which again diverted over ninety percent of the available funds to aid parochial schools. It seems that the health and safety needs of the public and non-parochial private school students have effectively been excluded from participation in the health and safety program. Accordingly, because the application of Resolution 34 is unconstitutional, it does not solve the fourth problem described in Brady .