Republican leaders are blasting Governor Andy Beshear for launching pre-K education pilot programs in two Kentucky counties, and for how he's doing it.

Yesterday, while surrounded by children, the governor announced the all day pilot programs in Robertson and Rockcastle counties.

He says the programs will help young children and both counties become kindergarten ready.

And he says he hopes to expand the programs to other counties.

Kentuckians might wonder, where is he getting this?

Where is the state getting the money to do this?

Since the Kentucky General Assembly didn't pass a universal pre-K bill during the recent session.

Well, the governor explained that yesterday.

Every community.

But we were able to take action today to expand pre-K in these two counties, solely through executive action.

We were able to take, dollars from some workforce programs that we did not believe were maximizing outcomes and that we could bring in-house and fully run and thus be able to to free up parents in both of those, counties.

Now.

The governor's use of workforce development dollars is prompting criticism from Republican legislative leaders.

State Senate President Robert Stivers put out this statement, quote.

Governor Beshear has repeatedly argued that programs and policies cannot move forward without explicit funding or legislative direction at a minimum.

Today's announcement appears difficult to reconcile with that long standing position, and raises broader questions about how this administration determines when flexibility within existing appropriations can and cannot be exercised.

In quote.

House Speaker David Osborne said this, quote, the governor has continually failed to present a thoughtful, well developed plan in a manner that garners even modest support from lawmakers.

Major commitments of taxpayer dollars should not be made by robbing one program to create another, or without a plan for what happens when funding is exhausted.

End quote.