Reporters asked Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, about House Bill two today and how lawmakers are handling it.

This is his response.

Public dollars should only go to public schools.

Period.

I'm against this constitutional amendment.

If they pass it, I will work every day to defeat it at the ballot box in November.

And you can tell that it does not have bipartisan support.

It doesn't have the support of a number of Republican legislators.

The fact that they would cut off debate even when someone of their own party was talking and if you think you're doing the right thing, you don't have to.

To call these special meetings at a moment's notice and then have a whole committee substitute that no one gets to read before they're asked to vote on it.

No good government has a level of transparency where you ought to be able to see the bills and fully read them before you vote on them.

The public should be able to come and weigh in.

They should allow testimony from everyone who shows up within reasonable limits.

And sadly, it seems we are seeing more last minute additions, changes, hastily called meetings every single session with less and less transparency.

I think Kentuckians will overwhelmingly vote against public dollars going to private schools.

Private schools are fine, but they are a choice.

Now, the way to fix public education is to fix public education is to ensure we're providing the funding that it needs.

And if you look at these budgets, they're not making the increases in public education that are necessary to make those fixes.

So you can't underfund and starve a system and then say it doesn't work and send the money somewhere else.

At the end of the day, these are private corporations that really want to get their hands on a lot of money that should be going to public schools.

Also called for the Kentucky General Assembly to give raises to public school employees.

He says other state workers, including social workers and state police, have received raises.

He says it's long overdue for educators.