Student confronts Calif. lawmaker over school cuts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Even kids are fed up with California's budget problems.

On Wednesday, a 12-year-old Sacramento girl confronted state Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, one of the Republican budget negotiators, as he was leaving a news conference in the Capitol.

Ashante Throwerwommack (throh-er-WOH'-mak), who is in seventh grade, asked him why lawmakers keep cutting funding for public schools.

"I just had a quick question," she asked after Blakeslee had just finished talking with reporters about proposed cuts to the state prison system.

"I was wondering why is it that us children seem to suffer from the schools getting cut and some of those schools are really good schools," she said.

As reporters and TV crews swarmed around them, the San Luis Obispo Republican responded that he had two children in public schools and said lawmakers were doing what they could to protect education funding.

He told the girl that Republicans, Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worked hard to preserve the state's minimum funding guarantee for schools, which was established by voter initiative in 1998.

Lawmakers' options are limited, he said, because of California's declining tax revenue, which has left the state with a $26.3 billion deficit for the current fiscal year.

"Public education is very important, I think, for the legislators who are up here," he told the girl. "This is a very difficult time. We're doing our best."

The budget-balancing proposal that will go before the Legislature on Thursday would cut $6 billion from K-12 schools, on top of billions in cuts made earlier this year. Education officials said they expect bigger class sizes, teacher layoffs and the elimination of programs in many school districts.

Afterward, the girl told reporters that she was a student at Natomas Charter Performing and Fine Arts Academy in Sacramento and was visiting the Capitol as part of a summer program to help inspire young girls.

She said she was impressed that Blakeslee stopped to answer her question, even if she wasn't entirely pleased with is response.

"They always tell you what you want to hear, but it's not the truth," she said. "You know, it's not always the best answer."

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