On state budget games, Ky. GOP moves the football and Dems end up flat on their back
I hate to break it to Senate President Robert Stivers, but his own lack of any pre-K education is not actually a compelling argument against it.
Stivers was talking to Kentucky Tonight host Renee Shaw about Gov. Andy Beshear’s budget proposal, which would fully fund pre-K education for all Kentucky children. Stivers is not a fan, he said. He hasn’t seen any convincing data on the benefits of pre-K. “Kids need to be kids ... I didn’t have pre-K, my children didn’t have pre-K,” and they all went on to higher education and good careers.
Instead, Stivers said, the government should incentivize businesses to run more daycares.
Let’s put aside for now the reams of data on the benefits of preschool, but stay on children and the very childlike behavior of politicians on both sides of the aisle. Stivers was merely pointing out that Republicans will not pass Beshear’s budget proposal, even though it’s the best one for education that’s been possible since the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act.
Beshear made it public as part of a long and tedious unveiling aimed at shoring up his reelection campaign. One day, education, then next economic development and so on, leading up to his budget speech on Thursday. The Republicans, however, decided to get petty by overturning years of precedent and releasing their budget proposal before the governor.
This made Beshear very angry, and then he accused the Republicans of possibly breaking the law. “Drafting and filing an executive branch budget, without the knowledge or input of the executive branch itself, is unprecedented, it’s unprovoked, it’s unprofessional, unwise and perhaps even unlawful,” Beshear said.
It’s also the same Charlie Brown dynamic that keeps going on between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans promise not to move the football and the Democrats end up flat on their back again. Like Charlie Brown, the Democrats never, ever seem to learn that Republicans will always take an advantage even if it seems dishonorable or unprecedented. Did they learn nothing from Trump? The GOP sure did. Plus, it seems really easy to get under Beshear’s skin, and boy, do the Republicans have fun doing it.
All this “kids being kids” stuff is purposely distracting from the real issues, like Beshear’s budget, which funds really, really important things, like raises for teachers, social workers and State Police. Like funding for pre-K and for family resource centers, which help Kentucky’s desperately poor children, who aren’t as lucky as Stivers and his family not to need any help with winter coats or educational enrichment. As Beshear correctly pointed out, if we want to keep luring big employers to Kentucky, our school system has to be better.
We’ll see where that political reality meets political expediency for the GOP when they’re not playing little political games, however successfully. In the meantime, Beshear needs to be the adult in the room. Stay focused on a good agenda and please stop trying to kick the football.
