>> major funding for Chat Box is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association , making public schools great for every child.

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Online at insiderNJ.COM ♪ David: hey everybody.

Welcome to Chat Box.

Efforts at shrinking the U.S. government continue.

Education is the next apartment on the chopping block.

We discussed that with Vigneault Paul in our second half.

Let's forget the noise you've been hearing out of D.C. this month.

The real battle is about to begin.

Our continuing resolution just cleared the house this week, avoiding a federal government shutdown at least temporarily.

The action moves to the Senate now.

That's where Andy Kim works.

He's been kind enough to join us for a few minutes here.

Welcome back to the show.

>> thanks for having me.

David: so lots to them back here.

Can you explain what the continuing resolution is that just past the house?

>> I think I will start by saying, Congress is going to pass a bipartisan budget every single year.

That's what we are working towards.

I have to say that is such a shameful act.

We were so close to agreement and he walked away.

No one else agreed to it.

That's the situation we are in now.

He chose to go it alone.

The Republicans in the Senate talked about the importance of trying to move forward in the bipartisan way.

That's the pressure right now.

If Speaker Johnson continues to push this forward in this extreme way, it will be incredibly bad for New Jersey and the country.

David: a continuing resolution is not a budget.

It specifically is a kind of a stopgap measure.

We haven't had a budget since the Clinton years.

>> yeah.

It's been a long time since we've been able to have a full budget.

In the past, we've been able to pass a number of the appropriations bills in bipartisan ways that are able to give direction.

If we don't get congressional direction, all you are doing is handing a pile of money to Donald Trump to do whatever he wants with it.

That's what is so dangerous.

We've seen the retribution that he takes.

We know that New Jersey would get screwed over if Trump gets to do whatever he wants alongside Elon Musk.

You have to ask yourself, why are they doing this?

it's because of two things.

They are trying to give massive tax cuts to billionaires and the biggest corporations at the expense of the American people.

It's happening simultaneously to the president affecting so many of our families in terms of affordability by increasing our cost of living because of these insane tariffs that he's trying to do all over the country.

Those are the types of things that we are trying to stop, to make sure we can focus on affordability, help lower costs in a way that Donald Trump is not doing.

He's tanking our economy right now and saying we could end up in a recession.

That's on him.

David: let's talk about what the CR leaves out.

What is so offensive about it to you?

>> first and foremost, it basically just hands a pile of money over to Donald Trump.

David: what does that mean?

>> is keeping the funding levels , some of the funding levels from before.

It's not a clean CR.

It's increasing some of the military funding without direction.

It's cutting provisions that would help support community health centers, which are incredibly important in New Jersey.

I visited one in Monmouth County just the other week.

What we worry about is just our ability to build -- provide the services that are out there.

Again what we see right now is Donald Trump, whenever he has a chance, he's trying to screw over people who aren't loyalist supporters to him.

This would allow him to be able to direct that money where he wants.

David: now it's in the Senate.

Whereas the house needed a majority, the Senate needs 60 votes.

That's like six or seven Democrats that are needed to vote with Republicans.

Do the Republicans have that support?

>> they don't have that support.

They don't have that support at this time.

That's why we are saying, let's move forward with a 30 day extension.

That is something that the Republican chairwoman of Appropriations has talked about as a path forward.

I believe that's the best way to be able to keep this going.

I don't want to see a shutdown.

I was a civil servant working for the government, working not sure if I would get my paycheck.

We know how critical our services are there.

What we see right now is frankly a total disregard.

Donald Trump is already shutting down the government.

Look at what he did to the Department of Education the other day.

Cut it 50% there at the Department of Education.

Has worked its way through some of the other aspects of trying to cut.

I want to express to the people of New Jersey, this is not about efficiency.

Musk and Trump are demonizing public servants.

What they are trying to do is make these cuts and not to be physical responsible and lower government spending.

In fact, they are trying to create enough space for them to put in trillions of dollars of tax cuts that are going to favor the wealthiest people in this country.

That's what we need to stop.

David: in the New Jersey Legislature, they are called Christmas tree items.

Not as a compliment.

Congress calls it community project funds.

That's what you were talking about.

That's local projects like rec centers, health centers, nonprofits, etc.

Those funds are gone from the budget?

>> those are gone from this budget.

Beyond that, that's frankly a small part of what we are trying to get done out there.

For instance, what they are trying to do and create space for is what they call the reconciliation bill.

I know it's a bureaucratic term.

What it actually means is an effort where they are trying to get $880 billion from Medicaid.

What that is is that is people with disabilities.

One out of every three kids in New Jersey gets health care through Medicaid.

Long-term care facilities.

I have an aging parent that needs care, long-term care facilities and nursing homes, a lot of that comes through Medicaid.

This isn't something where you are going to be hearing from musk and others -- it's not lazy people who don't want to work.

That's why I brought Devin Nunes from New Jersey, a cerebral palsy -- someone who has been affected by cerebral palsy.

He highlights how he needs Medicaid in order to survive.

That is what is on the chopping block.

That's what I'm really worried about in terms of how this could unravel so much of the services we have a New Jersey.

David: worst case scenario, let's say that you essentially zero out Medicaid.

Who picks up that slack?

is there anyone to pick up that slack?

the state budget here in New Jersey is already on the edge.

A real big cut in Medicaid could really impact New Jersey's budget.

There's no indication necessarily that the state budget would be able to pick up the slack.

What happens then?

>> unfortunately, people will die.

People will get sick.

People will get hurt.

I'm not trying to be alarmist here.

That's just the facts of the case.

I've talked to hospitals, medical crack -- practitioners and others about how they are going to be shutting down hospital services, other things of that nature if they are not able to get the reimbursements from Medicaid, mental health support.

Everyone is talking about their concern about Fentanyl crisis and opioid overdose.

The vast majority of support for people who are trying to get medically assisted treatment and other support comes through Medicaid.

This is only going to make the fentanyl crisis worse and lives will be lost.

I hope people understand the true impact.

I get it.

If you ask your average person, do we want to shrink government and cut spending, the answer is going to be yes.

But we need to explain what it is that is on the line.

I want to CS make the government more efficient.

I worked in four different agencies.

I see places where things can be cut or waste can be trimmed.

The way they are going about this in this way, getting rid of some of the most talented civil servants that we have, trying to gut 80,000 employees from the Veterans Administration.

That's the absolute worst place for cuts when we should be supporting our veterans.

By the way, one in every three government employees is a veteran.

A lot of these people that are being cut are people that served our nation honorably.

David: is this to a certain extent a GOP fight?

what can Democrats do to impact this process?

>> right now, the Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

They are in the driver's seat.

Which is why they only's problems that are being faced by the American people right now.

Certainly what we are trying to push for is to be able to inform the American people what's happening.

Use the legislative tools that we have.

Also take litigation and judicial steps to be able to overturn this.

That's what we've been working through.

In filing lawsuits and other actions to be able to stop the executive branch.

Then you see Elon Musk saying that we should impeach those judges that stand in their way.

This is very much barreling towards a full-blown constitutional crisis.

In terms of the executive branch wanting to not work with the other branches.

They want to take over the other branches.

David: so I mean, I mentioned before we came on that you had a really kind of hard face today.

Usually you are very jovial, casual.

But I feel like you may be asking yourself, is this what I signed up for?

is it as chaotic as it seems to us watching from the outside?

>> the past couple days have been some of the hardest days of my career.

Right now, the Republicans have put us in a place where we are in a lose lose situation.

Either we lose tremendous amount of resources for our community through this continuing resolution or we are going to see tremendous amount of loss and damage through a shutdown of the Republican's doing.

That's why we are trying to push the 30 day extension to actually get a bipartisan deal that can be good for New Jersey and for the country.

But to your point, is this what I signed up for?

what I signed up for is a resident of New Jersey, as a kid who went through public school in New Jersey and a father of the seven-year-old and nine-year-old, I will fight for my kids.

I will fight for my community.

I refuse to let Donald Trump trample over our Constitution and do all that he can to be able to hurt New Jersey.

I'm ready for this fight.

This is why I came to Congress.

Otherwise I would be doing something else where I could see my kids a lot more growing up.

But I want to fight for their future.

David: you expressed concerns about pending cuts in agriculture and how that's going to impact kids.

>> yeah.

We are the Garden State.

We still have lots of farms.

What we provide his ability to support local schools in New Jersey to be able to get farm fresh items from New Jersey farmers.

Make sure our kids in school get healthy, fresh produce and also helps our New Jersey farmers at a time when we want to be able to support agriculture in this country.

The Republicans just cut that.

They cut $26 million out of the efforts we have to be able to support local farmers in New Jersey.

Again, the Garden State is our name.

This is something that is about trying to preserve our heritage and support healthy eating with our kids.

That's just been slashed.

A lot of schools are so worried about what comes next.

A lot of parents, really devastated that their kids are going to be fed a lot of unhealthy foods.

Not only that, you see a huge strain upon agriculture in New Jersey.

Could very well see farms closed.

David: talking to Democrats over the past month, I still get the feeling that y'all are still concussed.

Lupe.

Not quite off the canvas.

Princeton professor Eddie Claude last week on the show said, Democrats were on their heels and needed to get on their toes.

Is there any evidence aside from your righteous indignation expressed here today, is there any evidence that the Democrats are ready for a fight?

>> if you see our Attorney General Matt Platkin working alongside many other Attorney General from around the country, filing lawsuits about the cutting of the staff of the department of education that's going to hurt our schools.

I met with these other Attorney General's back in November.

To be able to develop the strategy.

What actions they are planning to take.

What we can do from a legislative effort to be able to support that.

Trying to engage in push forward.

I wish we had more tools.

I wish we had the gavel.

I ran for Congress in 2018 to be able to help the Democrats win -- wheeled the gavel.

We need to fight to flip congressional district including in New Jersey.

I want to make sure that the American people and the people of New Jersey continue to raise their voices.

In 2017 the Republicans tried to gut the Affordable Care Act.

We were able to generate a tremendous amount of noise and opposition to that.

Senator McCain and other Republicans gave them space to vote around their own party.

We saved the affordable care act.

We will see a lot of damage no doubt by the trumpet ministration but we have to be able to fight and not give into that sense of helplessness and apathy.

David: we are following the story as it unfolds this week.

Andy Kim, thanks for taking a few minutes.

Get back to work.

Good to see you.

>> thank you.

Take care.

David: the Trump Administration wants to shutter the federal education Department, announcing a 50% reduction in staff.

What does that mean to your local schools?

maybe unknown.

Let's get a better picture of the implications of that from the state Senate education committee chairman.

Welcome back to the show.

>> good to be with you.

David: we should start by explaining the difference between what the federal department does and doesn't do versus the state and ultimately local districts.

What's the main function of the federal department?

>> sure.

First of all, a lot of oversight and a lot of direct funding help.

Whether it's Pell Grant's, mental health, special education, teacher recruitment programs.

It really makes sure that the core curriculum across all 50 states are consistent so we are not having state-by-state operations.

To see the news that 1300 employees are getting laid off, this could have a real devastating effect.

David: you say core curriculum.

What does that mean exactly when it comes to what kids are learning?

is there a federal standard that has to be met?

>> we want to make sure every kid in the country, regardless of if they are in New Jersey or South Carolina, can read and write.

That they are taking the proper math and science and English courses.

Every state might have additional curricular requirements.

We rely on the federal department of education for a lot of that guidance, to make sure so that we understand if one state is doing something well and another is not, that we are able to have that consistency.

David: the vast majority of the money has come from property taxes, yes?

>> yeah.

This is another thing that someone smart told me earlier today.

This could have a really big impact on property taxes.

I don't think we realize that this could drive up our taxes even higher.

If we are losing funding for mental health and special education and transportation, this will have a direct impact on property taxpayers.

David: what happens if the department disappears?

what does it mean to schools in your district and around the state?

what are they not going to have the day after the department closes that they had the day before?

>> I think we will see a lot of lost funding as it relates to mental health funding, special education funding, families with disabilities.

A lot of those grants that we rely on from the federal government is going to be really impacted.

The reality of New Jersey is that we get less money back than many other southern states.

I don't understand how some of these Republican-led governors and Republican-led states are going to be OK with this.

It has the ability to decimate their education systems and a lot of the southern states.

David: we are still five years later, this was the fifth anniversary this week of COVID being declared a pandemic.

Our educational system in New Jersey and our students by extension are not out of the woods when it comes to learning loss and all of the things that happened as a result of COVID.

This is probably the worst time to start gutting education funding, no?

>> yeah.

I don't understand.

I get some of the ideas.

You want to cut waste, spending.

We all want to do that.

This -- attacking education and saying the message it sends, we want to cut the department of education.

We know education is the lifeline for every family, no matter what they choose to do.

So many families, whether it's higher education or vocational school, trade school, technical school, the word education is consistent in all of that.

I think it just sends an awful message.

I wish the message would have been, we will look for potential savings or potential ways to streamline education or make it more effective.

That's not the message.

The message is, let's eliminate the Department of Education.

That's terrific for our kids growing up.

For them to see on the TV screen , the Trump administration wants to eliminate the Department of Education.

Those words alone send a horrific message for our youth.

David: I should also say, 21 states attorneys general are suing to try to stop this particular motion as they have many others by the trumpet ministration.

So a couple other state issues here.

Is the funding formula that's in place right now going to be the funding formula that we have going forward?

>> I think the formula is done.

I would expect the next governor, regardless of party, to actually make some changes.

I think there needs to be more changes in the formula.

Property values have gone up.

We are seeing massive swings.

I know there will be a lot of good questions for the education commissioner and budget committee.

I don't think we are there.

I want to get to a place or any taxpayer in the state of New Jersey can go onto their school district website if they gained or lost, absolutely understand how those calculations are happening.

I don't believe that clarity has been provided by the government.

We have a bill that's going to force D.O.E.

to do that.

There are suit -- too many swings in the school districts.

David: that will be a part of the state budget process.

The funding formula.

School funding -- I know we will have the superintendent after superintendent go before the budget committee and plead their case.

The question of the school funding formula itself will not be a part of that process.

>> not on the budget.

The governor has put it cap on 3% of losses and 6% gains.

We should've done that a long time ago.

At least that gives the district proper planning.

David: small step on that front going forward.

Some districts with aging schools.

What is the money for capital projects going to come from for that?

>> you know, we have to see what these federal cuts are going to look like.

We still have school district in the state.

In Patterson and other places, they don't even have air conditioning in the hallways.

Maybe select classrooms.

A lot of the infrastructure is out of date.

We missed opportunities with some of the federal funds in COVID.

We should have spent more on school construction.

It's really sad that we are in this position and we are in this financial shape.

We have to see where the federal cuts will lead before we make those investments.

David: I just heard you say, I don't know.

Right?

>> to be determined.

David: so the school desegregation suit headed back to the courts it seems because the sides couldn't reach an agreement.

Did that just guarantee more years of hearings and motions?

>> unfortunately I think so.

I have a bill in May where I will work to mandate school district consolidation.

I believe we have the most segregated school districts in the country as a result of New Jersey having 600 plus school districts.

We have communities that touch each other that don't share music programs, arts programs, sports programs.

Consolidation will help in the segregation issue.

Why we have such aggregate school districts.

We will try to mandate it for years.

Everyone's been talking about incentives.

I don't believe incentives work.

Everybody loves the idea of consolidation.

Just don't do it in my backyard.

It's like Congress.

We have to collectively come together and start merging some of the school districts.

We've got districts as small as 150 kids.

They should not be school district anymore.

David: that's one of the proposed solutions.

Is there something that you've heard while you've read about this case that jumped out at U.S. something that's a logical idea?

>> in what sense?

David: in addition to school consolidation for instance.

Magnet schools have been talked about.

That kind of thing.

Even buses.

>> I think busing, transportation, sports, music, art has to be merged across multiple different school district.

That's the only way you will get integration.

David: tell me what you think is going to happen in this budget process.

Outside of schools specifically.

We are going into the process now and people always complain about how three guys in a room make the decision at the end.

Anything different this year?

>> There's a lot less money than we've had in the past.

Uncertainty from the federal government.

I think it's critically important that we do this day NJ program.

It will really help seniors to get that property tax cut.

I've appreciated the speaker call from the leadership on the.

I think that this is an opportunity.

The fact that the governor zeroed in everything in the budget.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing at this moment because it allows us to look at each of these items in the legislative process and figure out what's warranted to continue and what not to.

I think that's healthy to do from time to time.

David: we will be talking to U.S. the budget process continues.

Thanks for taking a few minutes with us today.

>> thanks David.

David: that's Chat Box for this week.

Thanks also to Senator Andy Kim for joining us.

We are on blue sky now.

You can follow us there and find more of what the news team is working on when you subscribe to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

I'm David Cruz.

For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, we thank you for watching and we will see you again next week.

>> major funding for Chat Box with David Cruz is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

Promotional support for Chat Box with David Cruz is provided by insider NJ, a political intelligence network dedicated to New Jersey political news.

Insider NJ is committed to giving serious political players an interactive forum for ideas, discussion, and insight.

Online at insidernj.com.

♪