FRANKFORT — The superintendent of Jefferson County schools says he supports a coalition of districts that once sued the state over education funding, and will urge his school board to join it.

        The head of the coalition — the Council for Better Education — said Jefferson County, the state's largest school district, could lend significant political support. The council is pushing to have a larger share of the General Fund dedicated to elementary and secondary schools.

        The school board in Fayette County, the second-largest district, voted Tuesday night to join the council.

        Together, the two counties could contribute a good deal of money for the council's lobbying or a possible lawsuit. Council President Jack Moreland said that was secondary to the clout they could muster in the General Assembly, where school funding decisions are made.

        “The ability of them to influence others is a significantly more important fact,” Mr. Moreland, superintendent of Covington Independent schools, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

        The council formed nearly 20 years ago. It sued the General Assembly in 1985 over the state's school funding system, which was tied to property taxes, made it virtually impossible for children in poor districts to have the same access to education as students in wealthier districts.

        The suit resulted in the Kentucky Supreme Court declaring the entire public school system unconstitutional. The General Assembly responded by enacting the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990.

        The Jefferson and Fayette school districts did not join the council in 1985, when the issue was one of equity. Now the issue is whether the General Assembly is shortchanging all school districts.

        Jefferson County Superintendent Stephen Daeschner was absent when officials from 100 districts mustered at the Capitol on Feb. 13 and voted to activate the council.

        Since then, several superintendents have been on hand each Wednesday, when the House and Senate education committees meet. Mr. Daeschner was among them this week.

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