(RALEIGH) -- State lawmakers are still reacting to Judge Howard Manning Jr's opinion this week that the legislature's budget proposal does not meet the constitutional requirement to provide a sound, basic education to the state's low-income preschoolers. Republican Representative Dale Folwell said he is disturbed by Manning's decision.

"Frankly, he seems to be working on a premise that we have a constitutional responsibility for some of these programs that are not even in the constitution at all.  North Carolina has a government that it can't afford and we have to prioritize our thinking not only as it relates to public education but all the other core responsibilities of state government," said Folwell.

State lawmakers, facing a record $2.5 billion budget shortfall, cut funding for pre-kindergarten programs this year by about 20 percent. Under the new budget that took effect July 1, most parents of children in the pre-k program that was once known as More at Four would have to pay something for the classes.