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Judge denies LA Unified request to block state funding cuts
A student on his way to school walks past a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school bus.
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Judge denies LA Unified request to block state funding cuts
Judge denies LA Unified request to block state funding cuts
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Thursday denied an L.A. Unified request to immediately stop California from carrying out significant midyear cuts in state support.
The state cuts will leave L.A. Unified with no money for the rest of the year to bus 52,000 students each school day.
The district argued that stopping busing would put it in violation of state and federal mandates. Taking the money from other parts of the budget, attorneys said, would cause irreparable harm to other programs.
L.A. Unified general counsel David Holmquist says the latter argument didn’t convince Judge Ann Jones.
"I’m disappointed in the outcome," Holmquist said, "but it does not deter our underlying litigation, which is to seek the preliminary injunction to otherwise stop the state."
Holmquist said a lawsuit the district filed last week is still in play. Busing will continue, but he added that the district hasn’t decided how it’ll rearrange nearly $40 million to maintain the program that transports students to magnet and other schools.
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