“Pre-K for All” discussion and Saturday’s coming SNAP benefits freeze were major focuses during Thursday’s “Team Kentucky” update — both of which could impact the Commonwealth in the coming weeks.
Governor Andy Beshear noted that his bi-partisan Pre-K Advisory Committee had completed its comprehensive report — which, at its end, called for expansion of Kentucky’s public preschool program.
The findings, he and others said, were based on five town halls, 54 outreach events and input from parents, educators, child-care providers, businesses and community leaders statewide, and included the following axioms:
+ That Kentucky’s early care system is fragmented and inadequate.
+ That Pre-K for All is achievable with proper planning.
+ That quality and flexibility are essential to success.
+ And that expanding pre-K benefits children, families, and communities.
Committee Executive Director Sam Flynn, who has made many presentations across the state over the last few months, also noted that other states — many Republican-led — have already seen strong returns on investment for universal pre-K, including better educational outcomes, reduced disciplinary issues and increased workforce participation.
The committee’s recommendations at this time, headed into the biennium budget, are:
+ To expand the existing state-funded preschool program now.
+ To phase expansion responsibly over several years.
+ To allow local flexibility in implementation.
+ To partner with Head Start, private, and community providers.
+ To prioritize quality and flexibility.
+ To provide regulatory flexibility for providers.
+ And to create a unified statewide data system to track progress.
Currently, 52% of Kentucky kindergarteners start school unprepared, and tens of thousands of 4-year-olds are not enrolled in any preschool program.
More than 60 county judge-executives, 30 mayors, and the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents have endorsed the “Pre-K for All” message, and more than 62,000 Kentuckians have penned letters to legislators in added support. Furthermore, nearly 90% of town hall participants favored more preschool funding.
As for SNAP, Beshear said that steps toward anchoring issues with both the Senior Home-Delivered Meals and TANF programs were putting things in the right direction, as is the initiation of a state-wide food drive running through Frankfort, but that this weekend could be the beginning of major concerns in Kentucky — and beyond.
He added that “many options” are on the table right now for Kentucky, but special session isn’t one of them, and he confirmed that the state doesn’t have the authority to simply use state dollars and push them through SNAP EBT cards.
Other methods of assistance must be sought.
Healthcare premiums, he said, are also a growing issue in this quagmire.
Beshear also noted that the growing lawsuit against the Trump Administration, one that calls for SNAP benefits to be released to states, is gaining even more momentum nationally.
According to PBS and the Associated Press, a federal judge in Boston on Thursday — U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani — told lawyers that if the government can’t afford to cover the cost, “there’s a process to follow rather than simply suspending all benefits.”
Talwani was expected to have a ruling before Friday, but was delayed.
