Kentucky Lawmakers Redefine Power of School Boards

In 1989, the struggle by a group of Kentucky school boards to overhaul the state's school-finance system was rewarded with a landmark supreme-court decision that forced the state to throw out its entire public-education infrastructure and start over.

But today, many board members are not sure whether to call what resulted a victory.

In crafting the reform act designed to address the court's concerns, lawmakers found a new target: the reported nepotism, mismanagement, and political...