Henderson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bob Lawson is one of 93 superintendents that signed on to a letter sent to the General Assembly asking for funding for Pre-K for All in the current budget session.
Gov. Andy Beshear sent out a release on Monday to again push for legislation that would create more education opportunities for four-year-olds in the commonwealth.
“Education leaders from across the state have stated clearly that Kentucky’s students and our families cannot wait: Pre-K access for every 4-year-old must be a priority this session to move our state forward,” said the governor in a prepared statement. “Far too many of our kids are not kindergarten-ready, and we must change that for them, for our families and for our workforce. I want to thank these superintendents and educators for their commitment to our kids and our future.”
Meanwhile, Lawson sent a statement to the Hendersonian which offers support why he suppports Pre-K for All.
“A strong start matters,” Lawson wrote. “Supporting Pre-K for All aligns with the mission of Henderson County Schools to provide extraordinary educational opportunities for every student. In Henderson, we value all of our community partners. We know it will take effort from everyone to ensure every student is reached. We want what’s best for all stakeholders, including our local child care facilities, and we are committed to working together so that every child has access to early childhood education. When we work together, everyone wins.”
The letter, sent to the General Assembly on Thursday, Feb. 5, highlights that state leaders are in the classrooms daily and that they know pre-K works, said the governor’s release. The letter also points out that currently only 14,000 of Kentucky’s 54,000 4-year-olds have access to pre-K, said the release.
The most recent letter sent to legislators follows letters that have been sent from the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, a letter from mayors, a letter from county judge-executives and a letter from local chambers of commerce.
Some local people were dismayed in early December when the Henderson Chamber of Commerce did not sign on to the governor’s letter from business leaders. The local chamber said then that the governor’s office left too many questions unanswered to sign on.
The chamber’s executive director, Clay Gillham, said then that the biggest question was the cost. She said the chamber wanted to know the cost of getting every 4-year-old into pre-K around the state, and the answer chamber officials got was “only a moderate increase” and not a specific number.
The chamber, Gillham said, also had questions about how implementation would occur, such as parents being reimbursed, school systems receiving funds, new structures being built or building additions to existing structures, and the possibility of public-private partnerships. There were also concerns about how it would affect local private childcare facilities.
Meanwhile, Rep. J.T. Payne has said that Pre-K for All isn’t supported at this time by either party. He made those comments at the chamber’s Feb. 2 Legislative Preview. He said what’s more likely to make it out of this year’s General Assembly session—when the next two years’ budget is decided—is a “Pre-K for some more.”
Currently, the level of a family’s income to be eligible for Pre-K is set at 160% of the federal poverty rate, which Payne said equates to about $52,000 per family. He said there have been discussions of upping that to 200% of the federal poverty rate, which is around $65,000 per family and would allow more children to be eligible.
Payne, also an educator as the principal of Henderson County High School’s Career and Technical Education unit, said at the Legislative Preview that it’s important that an expanded program is high-quality. He said that high-quality Pre-K programs improve the academic performance of students, but at least one study details how students who participated in a poor-quality Pre-K program ended up doing worse than those who did not have any Pre-K.
