'Delivering Great Pain And Damage To Children': Rob Bonta Decries Trump Education Cuts

Forbes Breaking News

At a press briefing on Monday, Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta spoke about whether the California legislature will have to meet to address funding gaps.

Transcript

00:00Next question comes from Ashley. Ashley, you are now unmuted.

00:12Hi, Mr. Oh, my question is for Attorney General Rob Bonta. Actually, this one's on topic. I do

00:18have an off topic one if you'll indulge me after this one, Mr. Attorney General. My on topic is,

00:24I mean, at this point, I mean, with, I know there's a lot of, we're getting to the point

00:29where there's so many lawsuits that have been filed, a lot of funding at question. I mean,

00:34as a former state lawmaker, do you anticipate that our legislature might have to come back

00:40in an off period to figure out some of these funding gaps that the state is facing, especially,

00:45you know, now that we're talking about education?

00:49Hi, Ashley. Thank you for your question. Don't want to speak for the legislature, although I'm

00:56grateful for their efforts to continue to advance our values here in California and push back against

01:03some of these unlawful actions. They've been a great ally, including providing support for the work

01:09that we're doing in our office and giving more budget allocation for us to beef up our teams so

01:14that we can make sure we're defending California, including the funding that we are owed. And we've

01:19been able to stop the withholding of billions of dollars in funding already. So we're grateful.

01:27They'll have to decide what is most appropriate in California. But the amount of these funds,

01:34especially in aggregate, if you think about the eight education cases that we have, or in aggregate,

01:39when you think about the 31 now cases that we have, and this same move has been used time and time

01:45again, an attempt to block already congressionally appropriated funding. Those are actions that blow

01:53holes in budgets. They are very difficult to backfill entirely. Can they be mitigated? Perhaps are

02:01there efforts from state legislatures that can be taken to help reduce some of the harm? Very possibly.

02:11But these are devastating. And they are delivering great pain and damage to children, to schools,

02:20to teachers, to parents, to families. So I'm not sure what the legislature will do. But I know that

02:25they've been great partners. They share values. And I know that they will take appropriate actions to

02:29protect the people of California and make sure that we are able to protect and secure our future.

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