School members gathered outside Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel’s office in Encino to protest Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal to withhold Prop 98 funding for public schools.
They’re urging state leaders to reject the proposal, which they say could cause the Los Angeles Unified School District to lose more than $220 million.
Alex Orozco with United Teachers Los Angeles spoke to KNX News’ Nataly Tavidian about the consequences this proposal could have on the classroom.
“It's just a plethora of issues from no more personnel, staffing, health, and human services; the working conditions get worse; programs that are meant to uplift our most marginalized students are cut,” he said. “So our arts, our music, and everything that just makes the instructional program vibrant gets cut because of these funds being withheld.”
Gov. Newsom said the money could be released later but Orozco said districts are making decisions now.
“$220 million will go a long way to help solve some of the issues that our district is facing right now,” he said, “Not in the future, not who knows when, not when Governor Newsom decides that he's gonna release them, that's almost a quarter of a billion dollars.”
Orozco said educators hope lawmakers hear their concerns and protect the funding voters approved decades ago for California schools.
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