It took until 1850 and Kentucky’s third state constitution for the Commonwealth to guarantee public education for its citizens. The 1891 constitution [1] is still in effect which mandates the legislature to provide a common fund to pay for a state-wide school system that does not discriminate by race or color. The constitution does not permit the fund to be used to support sectarian or denominational schools. Initially, the Kentucky legislators were apathetic to the idea of a state public school system and resistant to the thought that anyone should have to pay for the education of someone else’s child. For decades the legislature prioritized roads, bridges and railways over education. These have been characterized as “short-term” goals by historian, Frank Mathies, that were more certain to be rewarded with votes [2] . It took the combined lobbying of the Kentucky Education Society founded in 1827, the Kentucky Common School Society, founded in 1834, and the Kentucky Association of ...