Superintendents from two small Kentucky school districts joined Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear Thursday to announce they would take part in a new pilot program to expand access to pre-K to all 4-year-olds in the district.
Beshear has called for universal Pre-K for years, ramping up his efforts in 2025, but the Republican-controlled General Assembly again did not fund it in the two-year budget they passed in April.
“Unfortunately, the Republican supermajority refused to fund Pre-K for All this session, turning a no-brainer into a partisan issue,” Beshear said. “We will not accept that outcome, because Kentucky's kids deserve better. So do our families who need childcare, and our businesses which need a strong workforce to remain successful.”
But if the Republican-controlled General Assembly didn’t appropriate any money for this program, where’s it coming from? Beshear said he is making the pilot happen entirely through executive order and the state will use appropriated economic development funds to make it happen.
Both school districts are small — Rockcastle County Public Schools serve 2,600-plus students and Robertson around 430 students altogether. In front of Beshear as he made the announcement, children from Robertson County held a sign that read “Our Kids Deserve Pre-K.”
“They'll be some of Kentucky's first kids experiencing the benefits of all day pre-K, which every child deserves,” Beshear said.
The executive order creates the new pilot program in the Education and Labor Cabinet and requires the agency to enter contracts with Rockcastle and Robertson to provide full day universal public child care for all 4-year-olds in those districts.
Rockcastle County Schools Superintendent Carrie Ballinger said the program would both save elementary school teachers from spending time on remediation and give parents much needed financial relief.
“As an educator, I have seen for myself the immediate and lasting effects of preschool,” Ballinger said. “I've seen that students who have the opportunity to attend preschool, they have much more success in school, they're much more likely to graduate from high school, and they are much better prepared to enter the workforce.”
Spokespeople for the Kentucky House and Senate Republican leadership did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Senate President Robert Stivers of Manchester has previously pushed back against the prospect of instituting universal pre-K, questioning any potential returns and the state’s ability to fund such a program in perpetuity.
Other Republicans have also questioned the governor’s cost estimates and said the state should not be creating new programs that it will be obligated to fund for years to come.
But Beshear argues the program is essential to making sure more Kentucky children are ready for kindergarten. Less than half of Kentucky children show up for their first day of school ready for kindergarten, and most of Kentucky’s counties are child care deserts.
In June 2025, Beshear signed an executive order establishing the Pre-K for All Advisory Committee, and after meeting for several months, the committee recommended the state phase in expanded access to pre-K over the next several years.
Sanford Holbrook, the superintendent of Robertson County Schools, said the closest childcare facilities to his county are a 30- and 40-minute drive away.
“Pre-K for All will move Kentucky forward and get kids on the right track and help parents get to work for all,” Holbrook said. “I'm over-the-moon excited for Robertson County to be one of the first districts in the Pre-K for All pilot program.”
When Beshear’s administration presented its plan for universal pre-K to state lawmakers in February, Republicans were highly skeptical. GOP Rep. Kim Banta of Fort Mitchell, who chairs the House subcommittee in charge of education funding, said she worried it would put existing child care providers out of business and come with serious costs attached that would make it harder to pay down the state’s existing obligations.
“We're not going to take out of retirement. We're not going to put small businesses out of jobs. We want to do something. But I'm not sure that this is exactly the answer,” Banta said. “We're kind of talking about unicorns and rainbows right now. It's hard, expensive.”
Beshear did not say Thursday how much his plan would cost, but it is sure to be significantly smaller than the $50 million he asked lawmakers to provide over the next two years to expand public pre-K.
The state already funds some public preschool for 4-year-olds below 160% of the federal poverty line and 3- and 4-year-olds with disabilities; the budget lawmakers OKed in April funds that program with $84.5 million, the same level as the current fiscal year, or roughly 14,200 kids.
Through House Bill 6, state lawmakers did pass their own set of child care priorities by reforming the current Child Care Assistance Program and KY All STARS child care rating system. It also created a new pilot program that would incentivize parents and child care providers who turn out kindergarten ready students.
