That same committee meeting began with Kentucky's new education commissioner laying out his top priorities.

Robby Fletcher took over as the state's top education official on July 1st.

The former superintendent of the Lawrence County school system has been involved in education for nearly three decades.

Speaking to legislators this morning, Fletcher said his first priority is to build relationships.

We have to teach our kids so often that they have tremendous potential.

We want to teach them to dream.

We want to give them opportunities to dream, but also to we have to give them opportunities to struggle.

Life's tough.

We need to lift them up.

We need to give them opportunities to grow, to learn, to struggle, and also to, again, if you've been to any of the opening day speeches I've given, the last one is that opportunities to succeed.

My story in public education is something I'm very proud of.

I'm very thankful for.

But the people that I worked with every single day, from the cooks in the cafeteria to the bus drivers all the way up to the teachers, gave me those opportunities to succeed.

And I'm so thankful for that.

So again, it starts with building relationships so that we can get to the point of making sure that we provide opportunities for every single child in the Commonwealth.

Fletcher said other top priorities include developing a new assessment and accountability system and looking at reforming the sick formula, which is a funding mechanism for schools.

Commissioner Fletcher was also pressed on the use of social and emotional learning programs in schools.

I'm concerned too, when I go to meetings or hear administrators speak that they address social emotional learning.

The whole child global citizenship.

I'm concerned that there's a distraction on core subjects and academics with all these other new ideas, and so would you give us an assurance that you are going to focus on academics and core topics and try to try your best in your leadership position to avoid all these other distractions?

Thank you for the question and I understand where you're coming from, and sometimes I agree with that.

Sometimes we lose that focus on the importance of mathematics, the importance of reading, or it appears that we do.

Of course, we've had to pieces of legislation that have gone through that we've put a lot of effort into when it comes to literacy in the letters, training and the investment to teachers to bring them up to where they are.

They're teaching the science of reading.

They're making sure that students have that every single opportunity also to numeracy.

Another bill that passed is how do we make sure that students are having that opportunity to learn mathematics at the highest level, but starting at a foundational level.

So I think already you can see an investment from Katie.

Of course an investment from our legislature into those two models and into those two areas of concern.

Now I will say that it is very important that we give the emotional supports to our kids.

They face so many trials and tribulations when they walk into our classrooms.

And if we can't meet those needs, then we can't get to math and reading.

So we have to find a balance.

Keeping with education is the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence says constitutional Amendment number two, if passed by voters in November, would have, quote, negative consequences for Kentucky education.

Amendment two has been called a school choice amendment.

If passed, it would give the Kentucky General Assembly the ability to OC public funds for private schools.

The Prichard Committee analyzed the amendments impact and says funding private K through 12 schools would not be an appropriate or effective use of public funds.

The committee says the result would be scarce funding spread across more providers, less accountability, more benefits for wealthier families and fewer resources for students with disabilities.

Bridget Blom, president and CEO of the Prichard Committee, says, quote, Diverting public dollars to private school choice options creates the conditions for an unregulated market with no accountability to the taxpayers who fund it and no durable research that warrants such an investment, unquote.