State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Comments on Mid-Year Cuts
SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson issued the following statement regarding mid-year spending cuts announced today:
"It's a sad day for California. Taking hundreds of millions of dollars from our schools—on top of the $18 billion in cuts they have already suffered—will only make life harder for students in California's chronically underfunded schools.
"Mothballing school bus fleets across the state will mean many rural, disabled, and low-income students literally will have no safe way to get to school. Children will lose child care, students will lose the opportunity for a college education, and our overcrowded classrooms will continue to be jammed with 35 to 40 students.
"That's not the kind of education or state we want. This is not the California our children deserve."
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Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction