I attended the opening of the new St. Timothy School in Union recently, where Bishop Roger Foys was in attendance for the dedication. I had the honor of donating the new flag that will be flown over the school.
Schickel
The flag had previously been flown over our state capitol. It was a beautiful ceremony with many vibrant faces of new students and young parents on hand.
Our community owes a great deal of thanks to Rev. Richard Bolte, the Pastor of St. Timothy Parish, who dedicated countless hours of hard work to see this new school become a reality. With an investment of more than $6 million by the good people of the Diocese of Covington, especially parishioners of St. Timothy, this project was no easy lift. The dedication ceremony caused me to think about education on a larger scale in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and especially in Northern Kentucky.
We here in Boone County are fortunate to have a world-class public school system. The Kentucky State Constitution makes it very clear that it is the responsibility of the state to fund the public education system. Unfortunately for Boone County, the funding responsibility to the school system has fallen disproportionately on local taxpayers. I have been working alongside members of the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus and with Boone County school officials to identify solutions to this issue.
These efforts reiterate why I am so thankful for our private schools and home schoolers in our community. They take a lot of pressure off of our already-crowded public school system. Private schools and home schoolers also provide tax relief, as the state does not take on the cost of educating students in these systems.
The new St. Timothy School in Boone County represents the first new Catholic school opened in Northern Kentucky in over 40 years. With major renovations at St. Henry High School, Covington Catholic, and Notre Dame Academy (all of which cater to a significant amount of Boone County students), an investment of more than $20 million has been made to fund education by some very dedicated individuals, in addition to the taxes they are already paying to fund our public school system.
This does not include all the home schoolers and other small private schools such as the Union Academy, Heritage Academy, and others which also provide excellent educational opportunities in our community. These schools do a stellar job producing exemplary results from a great number of students, while taking some pressure off of our excellent public school system. This is significant because education is the single-largest expense of taxpayer’s money.
This is why year in and year out, I have supported a measure in the General Assembly that would make tuition paid to private educational institutions tax-deductible. The legislation has passed the Senate multiple times. These parents and contributors are happy to pay their taxes to support the public school system, all they ask is for their tuition to be tax-deductible, which is only fair and equitable.
Senator John Schickel (R-Union) represents the 11th District in Boone County.
