California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, flanked by education leaders in the state, held a news conference on July 1 to push back on federal government budget cuts to California totaling about $811 million.
Announcing that California and other states are suing the federal government for the education cuts, Thurmond called the cuts an “illegal action.”
“We won’t stand for it,” said Thurmond. “It will not happen on our watch.”
“The dollars the President and his administration have threatened to take back have already been approved by Congress,” continued Thurmond, who said he was speaking on behalf of the nearly six million students enrolled in California’s public schools and tens of millions more around the United States.
“The president cannot illegally withhold resources from students just as we are approaching the new year just because they do not align with his personal preferences — or to settle some political score,” said Thurmond.
Thurmond was joined on stage by the California School Boards Association (CSBA), the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO), SEIU Local 99 (Education Workers United) and the California County Superintendents (CCS).
Thurmond said the cuts will affect students in all communities and impact after-school and teacher training programs as well as technological support and hiring.
“On behalf of 5,500 school board members, the California School Boards Association urges the federal government to immediately release the billions of dollars in education funding that they promised to our schools in California,” said Patrick O’Donnell, Chief of Government Relations at CSBA. “Honor your commitment to students, to educators, to school board members, to administrators.”