Jim Costa: “I rise today to tell an inconvenient truth about what happened to educational funding that Congress appropriated that…”

“I rise today to tell an inconvenient truth about what happened to educational funding that Congress appropriated that was to go to our schools. On June 30, just 1 day before $7 billion of educational funding was supposed to be delivered to our State budgets, the Trump administration pulled the rug out from under the schools--no warning, no explanation. Let me explain something about California. We are a donor State. That means that the citizens of California, the taxpayers, send more money to Washington than we get back every year. In California, we were supposed to receive, as I said, $928 million. This was a big blow to school districts across the country, including those that I represent in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Fresno Unified, which I represent, was to lose $7.1 million. Visalia Unified would have lost $2 million. Across the San Joaquin Valley, districts were preparing for these devastating cuts in mental health services, after-school programs, and support for English learners and migrant students. While the Republicans stayed silent, my colleagues and I stepped up. We wrote to the Trump administration, demanded answers, and put pressure on them to act. They finally listened. Let's be clear: This didn't happen on its own. It happened because we put pressure on them. Now the money is flowing, and I hope it is the entire $7 billion that goes to our schools throughout the country.”