Amendment 2 would change Kentucky's Constitution to allow the General Assembly to spend tax dollars for educating students at private schools. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

FRANKFORT — A multi-million dollar television advertising campaign supporting the so-called “school choice” amendment on the November ballot is being single-handedly funded by Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire and Republican mega donor.

In early September a political action committee called Protect Freedom began running television ads advocating passage of Amendment 2 which would change Kentucky’s Constitution to allow the General Assembly to spend tax dollars for educating students at private schools. One of those ads features Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul making the pitch for the amendment.

Protect Freedom is a national PAC closely affiliated with Paul and largely funded by Yass since it was formed by Paul’s political associates in 2017.

A report filed by Protect Freedom with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday shows that it got $5,000,250 in total contributions during the period between July 1 and Sept. 30. Of that total, $5 million (99.99 percent) was donated by Yass on Sept. 6.

The report also shows that it paid $2,031,418 in September to Strategic Media Placement, an Ohio media company that has placed Protect Freedom’s ads advocating for the school choice amendment with Kentucky television stations.

Protect Freedom as of Wednesday morning has bought $4.1 million in ads promoting the amendment, according to a representative of Protect Our Schools, a group opposing the amendment that has been tracking advertising buys in the race.

Yass is managing director and co-founder of the Philadelphia-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group. He is worth $44.3 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His holdings include a major investment in the China-based ByteDance, the parent company of the hugely popular social media site TikTok.

Yass also is the country’s second largest political donor, having made $79.7 million in political contributions since Jan. 1, 2023 — nearly all of that to Republican causes, according to Open Secrets, a website that tracks political contributions. (That total does not include the $5 million he gave in September to Protect Freedom.)

And for many years Yass has made big contributions to political committees — particularly in Pennsylvania but also in many other states — advocating school choice.

He is no stranger to donating in Kentucky.?

Last year he donated millions to PACs that unsuccessfully supported Republican Daniel Cameron’s campaign for governor.

And he has long been a massive donor to PACs affiliated with Paul. The $5 million he gave to Protect Freedom in September brings his total contributed to Protect Freedom to $34 million since 2017. In? 2021 he gave $5 million to a PAC that successfully supported Paul’s reelection in 2022.

Advocates for Amendment 2 say it will improve education by making it possible for more parents to have a choice in deciding where to send their children to school.?

Another pro-amendment group called Kentucky Students First recently reported that it had raised about $1.5 million to promote the amendment. Kevin Broghamer, who is treasurer? of Kentucky Students First, declined to immediately answer questions from Kentucky Lantern Wednesday morning. Broghamer, who is also treasurer of Paul’s campaign committee, said someone with the group would call back if it had any comment. As of early Wednesday afternoon the group did not call Kentucky Lantern back.

Opponents of the amendment say that it would divert tax dollars from already under-funded public schools to private schools.

A PAC called Protect Our Schools has recently reported raising about $3.1 million from teacher unions for its advertising campaign to defeat the amendment. Of that total $2.4 million came from the National Education Association, and $250,000 each from the Kentucky Education Association and Jefferson County Teachers Association.

Eddie Campbell, president of the Kentucky Education Association and board member of Protect Our Schools, said of Yass’s donation, “A billionaire is giving our politicians in Frankfort a blank check to divert our tax dollars from public schools. … He’s flooding the airwaves with misleading ads.”

Campbell said the difference between the big contributions to each side is that Yass is just one person, while the teacher unions are made up of tens of thousands of “members of local communities who are concerned about the harmful effect this amendment will have.”