Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear steps up campaign to ensure preschool for every Kentucky 4-year-old
Having been stymied by the state's GOP-supermajority legislature in recent years when he pitched his universal pre-K plan, Beshear kicked off a campaign in hopes of building grassroots support. It comes about seven months before lawmakers convene in January for their 2026 session, which could be the term-limited governor's last realistic chance to turn his ambitious preschool plan into law. The 2026 session will be highlighted by work to pass the state's next two-year budget.
Beshear, a two-term governor seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, said every child 'deserves a good start' by ensuring they are prepared for kindergarten. The Bluegrass State is falling short of that goal, he said, pointing to statistics showing more than half of Kentucky children are unprepared for their first day of kindergarten, creating an achievement gap that's difficult to overcome.
'Scripture tells us that children are a gift from God," Beshear said during his campaign-style stop in Louisville. "And I believe that we have a responsibility as adults to build a better state for every single one of them. We all know that we can do this with pre-K for all. Let's finally get this done.'
Nearly two-thirds of Kentucky's 120 counties lack sufficient child care to serve every family that needs it, the governor said. Workforce participation rates tend to be lower in counties with fewer childcare options, Beshear's administration said.
'Kentucky will never reach its potential if our children's zip code determines their place in the world by the first day of kindergarten,' said Democratic Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, a former public school teacher and administrator. 'The time for pre-K is now.'
The benefits of his pre-K proposal would be much broader and would include increasing the state's workforce by enabling more parents to go back to work, Beshear said. And it would help ease the financial burden on parents with young children, he said.
'American families right now are struggling, struggling to pay the bills, and child care is a big part of that," Beshear said. "Pre-K for all could ease the financial burden facing our hardworking families and make paying those bills not just a little but a lot easier.'
Beshear on Wednesday did not delve into how much state-funded preschool would cost, but he pointed to a study indicating every $1 invested in pre-K generates $10 cycling through the state economy.
Leading up to the 2024 legislative session, Beshear's budget plan included $172 million each year of the following two-year budget cycle to provide preschool for 4-year-olds. Beshear has said the expense is 'more than affordable,' amounting to a fraction of the massive surplus in the state's budget reserve trust fund. That preschool proposal and others like it have made no headway with GOP lawmakers.
Guaranteeing preschool access should be nonpartisan, Beshear said Wednesday. He said that some 18 states — including some run by Republicans — offer pre-K access for all 4-year-olds.
Beshear and other top members of his administration planned events in Kentucky's biggest media markets over the coming days to promote the preschool plan.
In another sign he's stepping up the public campaign for his pre-K proposal, Beshear issued an executive order creating an advisory committee that will hold statewide public meetings on the issue. The committee — made up of people with backgrounds in education, workforce development and business — will make a written report to the governor this fall detailing its findings and recommendations.
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CNN
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- CNN
Trump set to announce Kennedy Center Honorees as he tries to put his stamp on DC
Donald Trump FacebookTweetLink President Donald Trump will appear at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, where he's expected to announce the first recipients of its hallmark honors since he seized control of the institution's board earlier this year. The visit to the iconic performing arts complex comes as Trump seeks greater authority over Washington, DC, and its most prominent cultural institutions in an aggressive bid to put his stamp on the Democratic-led city. Trump — who was installed as Kennedy Center chairman in February — teased the new slate of honorees in a Truth Social post on Tuesday that also alluded to Republican efforts in Congress to rename the complex after him. 'GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,' Trump wrote. The Kennedy Center later said it's 'honored' to host the president and appeared to preview a slate of honorees that included a 'country music icon, an Englishman, a New York City Rock band, a dance Queen and a multi-billion dollar Actor.' The visit will mark the president's third Kennedy Center appearance since returning to the White House, underscoring his personal interest in the activities of the performing arts center. A White House official said Trump would tour the Kennedy Center, as he weighs how to spend the $250 million that Republicans set aside in July for renovations to the center as part of their tax and spending bill. 'Thanks to his advocacy, our beautiful building will undergo renovations to restore its prestige and grandeur,' the Kennedy Center said Tuesday on X. In addition to taking control of the performing arts center, Trump has pressured DC's museums, memorials and other historic sites to recast American history in a more favorable light, criticizing what he called in a March executive order a 'revisionist movement' meant to 'undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States.' On Tuesday, the White House ordered a review of Smithsonian museums and exhibits to ensure alignment with that directive. The president has also embarked on wide-ranging renovation of the White House. And in an unprecedented move this week fueled by his personal frustration with incidents of crime and homelessness in DC, Trump federalized the city's police force. The sprawling effort to exert federal influence across DC is an escalation from his first term, during which he remained largely disengaged from the cultural institutions of a city that had overwhelmingly rejected him at the ballot box. Trump notably declined to attend the Kennedy Center Honors all four years after some of the honorees in 2017 said they would boycott a traditional White House pre-reception. Yet since returning to office, he has prioritized bending key elements of DC to his will, as part of what officials have framed as an effort to beautify the city and its key institutions and drive out what Trump has long criticized as 'woke' elements that don't conform to his worldview. The Kennedy Center has served as an early focal point of that project, drawing an institution that had traditionally remained above the fray of partisan politics directly into the center of the nation's culture wars. Trump in February dismissed a slew of Democratic appointees from the center's board of trustees, replacing them with aides and allies that included chief of staff Susie Wiles and second lady Usha Vance. Trump was subsequently elected chairman, with longtime confidant Ric Grenell installed as the Kennedy Center's new president. The takeover prompted sharp criticism from Democrats and angered artists connected to the Kennedy Center — including the producer of the hit musical 'Hamilton,' who cancelled an upcoming run of the show that was supposed to go through 2026. A series of other prominent artists, including director Shonda Rhimes and musician Ben Folds, resigned from their positions at the center. Since then, Trump has taken a hands-on approach to overhauling programming and drawing up plans for renovating the complex. On Monday, the Kennedy Center said it would host the premier of a film produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network that 'showcases the remarkable resurgence of faith among the youth in America.' It's an early sign of how programming may shift under the Trump-appointed leadership. The movie includes an appearance by Ben Carson, Trump's former secretary of Housing and Urban Development. That premier follows an earlier run of 'Les Misérables' — a favorite musical of Trump's — that the president attended in June. The appearance drew a mixed reaction, with some attendees booing Trump and four drag queens sitting below the presidential box in protest of his prior vows to rid the Kennedy Center of drag shows. Yet within the GOP, the Kennedy Center has become another rallying point for demonstrating loyalty to Trump. In July, House Republicans added a measure to a spending bill that would rename the center's opera house after first lady Melania Trump. Soon after, Rep. Bob Onder of Missouri introduced the Make Entertainment Great Again Act, which would go a step further and strip former President John F. Kennedy's name from the complex in favor of making it the 'Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.' 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Miami Herald
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Florida ‘Dreamers' lose in-state tuition — but not their college dreams
This past spring, Faten was on the brink of achieving her lifelong dreams: graduating from college. Then a junior at Florida Atlantic University, she was on track to graduate in December and was just 10 credits away from a bachelor's degree. She was also exploring her longtime passion for writing as a reporter for University Press, her school's student-run magazine, where she had also been offered an editorial position for the fall semester. Then, Faten became ensnared in Florida's crackdown on illegal immigration. But it was not the threat of deportation that thwarted her graduation plans at FAU. It was the GOP-dominated Florida Legislature's decision in January to repeal a decade-old state law allowing 'Dreamers,' non-citizen students who have lived in the United States since they were very young, the ability to pay in-state tuition rates. The change has derailed many of those students' graduation plans and, for some, made higher education completely inaccessible. The now-repealed 2014 state law allowed undocumented students to seek a waiver to pay in-state tuition rates if they had gone to high school in Florida for at least three consecutive years and enrolled in college within two years of graduating from high school. Faten, a Palestinian immigrant whose family arrived in Florida from Rafah when she was five, is one of an estimated 6,500 students at Florida's public universities and colleges who lost access to in-state tuition July 1. Faten asked that her last name be withheld for fear of retaliation. The repeal was part of a sweeping immigration reform package pushed by the DeSantis administration for the purpose of preemptively supporting President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. 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Read more: A scholarship program for undocumented students will end at eight Florida universities 'People are completely devastated, and the questions that we're getting mostly are just 'why?'' said Gaby Pacheco, the CEO of 'These are young people that are trying to understand the world and trying to accomplish their dreams and are being told by the leaders that are supposed to be protecting them and helping them that, 'No, sorry, because you are not born in this country, your dreams are not worthy.' Losing the students has financial consequences for Florida schools. has channeled nearly $27 million in scholarship funds to its eight partner schools in Florida. The nonprofit was FIU's largest private scholarship provider, according to Pacheco, giving $9.5 million since the partnership began. But it's not just pulling funding from Florida schools. 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It is just to allow for the young people who are in college right now to have the opportunity to finish their education.' One of those students at the Capitol that day was Carlie, then a University of Central Florida student who was two semesters away from graduation. 'What I gathered from the conversation is that they know that what they're doing is not okay, they know how it's affecting us, but no one is willing to take a stand and do something about it,' she said. 'They're all saying, 'Oh, I understand where you're coming from. I sympathize with you, but there's nothing I can do.'' Carlie, a Haitian-born student whose asylum application is still pending, had worked 20 to 36 hours per week at Publix to pay for basic living expenses, while covered her tuition. Carlie is not eligible for financial aid and does not receive support from her family. She also requested to withold her last name for fear of retribution. Now, she is on track to resume her studies online with the Indiana-based Purdue University, which accepts scholarships from Carlie, who lives in Orlando, said she did not feel safe transferring to another Florida school because of the school police's agreements with ICE. She said the transfer wouldn't impact her financial situation, but it has the potential to delay her expected graduation date by up to three semesters. Carlie had 32 credits left in UCF's 120-credit bachelor's program; Purdue's program requires 180 credits, and not all of Carlie's UCF credits are accepted. At first, the tuition turmoil left Carlie 'overwhelmed and depressed.' 'Because of the fact that this even happened, I kind of lost faith in this country, because it kind of feels like what I'm doing doesn't matter, because everything might be taken away from me, and there's nothing I can do about it,' she said. 'I'm still feeling powerless, but I'm trying to just push through, because I got this far on my own.' Carlie is not alone in the turmoil. She started volunteering with Florida Student Power, a statewide network of student activists supporting undocumented immigrants, among other causes. Carlie also runs her own advocacy platform on her Instagram page, 'dreamersuccess2026,' where she shares her experiences with other undocumented students, as well as job and scholarship opportunities. 'What happened to me wasn't fair, and if I can help other people get through their challenges, that's something I want to do,' she said Like Carlie, Faten has found a way to finish her studies despite the roadblocks. With the support of a scholarship from she is now enrolled at Lynn University, a private school in Boca Raton. Her first semester starts Aug. 17, and she expects to graduate by the end of next semester. 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NBC News
3 minutes ago
- NBC News
Sonya Massey shooting prompts Illinois law requiring disclosure of police recruits' backgrounds
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois law now requires that prospective police officers approve the release of personal background records in response to last summer's shooting of Sonya Massey, an unarmed Black woman, in her home by a sheriff's deputy who had responded to her call for help. Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday signed the legislation, which requires disclosure of everything from job performance reports to nonpublic settlement agreements. It resulted from indiscretions that came to light in the background of Sean Grayson, the ex-sheriff's deputy charged with first-degree murder in the case. Pritzker, surrounded by Massey's family in the state Capitol, said the first-in-the-nation law should serve as an example for other states as he let Massey's 'spirit guide us to action.' 'Our justice system needs to be built on trust,' the Democrat said. 'Communities should be able to trust that when they call the police to their home, the responding officer will be well-trained and without a history of bias or misconduct, and police officers should be able to trust that they are serving alongside responsible and capable individuals.' The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Doris Turner, a Springfield Democrat and friend of the Masseys, and Chicago Democratic Rep. Kam Buckner, who noted that Thursday marks the 117th anniversary of the three-day Race Riot in Springfield that led to the founding a year later of the NAACP. Who is Sonya Massey? Massey, 36, was a single mother of two teenagers who had a strong religious faith and struggled with mental health issues. In the early morning of July 6, 2024, she called 911 to report a suspected prowler outside her home in the capital city of Springfield, 201 miles (343 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Grayson and another deputy searched but found no one. Inside Massey's house, confusion over a pot of hot water Massey picked up and her curious response to Grayson — 'I rebuke you in the name of Jesus' — which the deputy said he took to mean she wanted to kill him, prompted him to fire on Massey, hitting her right below the eye. What prompted the legislation? The 31-year-old Grayson was 14 months into his career as a Sangamon County Sheriff's deputy when he answered Massey's call. His arrest two weeks later prompted an examination of his record, which showed several trouble spots. In his early 20s, he was convicted of driving under the influence twice within a year, the first of which got him kicked out of the Army. He had four law enforcement jobs — mostly part-time — in six years. One past employer noted that he was sloppy in handling evidence and called him a braggart. Others said he was impulsive. What does the law require? Those seeking policing jobs must sign a waiver allowing past employers to release unredacted background materials, including job performance reports, physical and psychological fitness-for-duty reports, civil and criminal court records, and, even otherwise nonpublic documents such as nondisclosure or separation agreements. 'It isn't punitive to any police officer. The same kind of commonsense legislation needs to be done nationwide,' James Wilburn, Massey's father, said. 'People should not be able to go from department to department and their records not follow them.' The hiring agency may see the contents of documents sealed by court order by getting a judge's approval, and court action is available to compel a former employer to hand over records. 'Several departments need to pick up their game and implement new procedures, but what's listed here (in the law) is what should be minimally done in a background check,' said Kenny Winslow, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, who helped negotiate the proposal. Would the law have prevented Grayson's hiring? Ironically, no. Most of what was revealed about Grayson after his arrest was known to Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, who was forced to retire early because of the incident. Campbell was aware of Grayson's shortcomings and, as a result, made him repeat the state's 16-week police training course. Even an incident that didn't surface until six weeks after the shooting — a dash-cam video of Grayson, working as a deputy in a nearby county, ignoring an order to halt a high-speed chase and then hitting a deer with his squad car — would not have disqualified him, Campbell said at the time. 'We can't decide who they do or don't hire, but what we can do is put some parameters in place so that the information will be there and the right decision can be made,' Buckner said. What's next? Grayson, who also faces charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in October.
