Monthly News Conference
We joined PBS Utah this week for our first Monthly News Conference of 2024. Here are some highlights:
Q: “The State Board of Education last night took action against Board Member Natalie Cline – you yourself have issued statements calling for her resignation. What do you make of the board's actions and what do you think the House should do now?”
A: I support the Board’s action. I think it’s very illustrative that it wasn’t just a Board action but it was a unanimous Board action. That’s a Board if you follow any of the Board meetings, it’s a divided Board. They don’t agree on a lot of things, which that’s part of the process, but this is one thing they all agree on and so I think that was very illustrative. We’ve had some conversations with the House and the Senate. I don’t know exactly what they’re going to do, we’ll find out soon. I don't want to presuppose anything that comes out of what they’re going to do later today. It’s a fair question. What I think should be done, I think she should resign. That’s the right thing to do, the best thing to do. Whether she should be impeached or not – what happened yesterday has effectively removed her from any action of the Board. Whether or not she’s impeached is probably immaterial at this point because that is in effect what has happened. She’s not participating in meetings, she’s not able to participate on any of the committees, she no longer has authority to even put agenda items on. That's a decision that was made and effective what has happened. I support that and I think that’s a really positive thing.
Q: “Legislators aren't sure what they want to do – they're hoping that she (Natalie Cline) resigns and they're hoping that voters take care of the problem in the upcoming election. There is a non-zero chance that she gets reelected; what happens in that case?”
A: That’s a hypothetical that I can’t answer… This is one of the problems, quite frankly, with having an elected school board. There’s a reason that almost every other state in the nation does not have an elected school board… In most every other state, governors appoint the school board because everyone knows who the governor is and everyone can hold the governor accountable. And if the governor does a terrible job of appointing school board members they can throw them out. In our state I appoint the board members for the Board of Higher Education. I’m held accountable for what that board does and I should be held accountable for that. Now I know that’s not going to change. There’s been a lot of talk about that. It would take a constitutional change, but that’s the reason why.
Q: “What are your thoughts about migrants coming to our state? Are you concerned about the crisis of immigration here in our state? There are some migrants that arrived from a New York City shelter this week – are you aware of this, and is this a concern?”
A: It is a concern. When you hear governors say that every state is a border state now, this is exactly what we’re talking about. Again, we’re the most compassionate country in the world, the most compassionate state in the world. We care deeply about helping people out but this system, it’s a perfect example of how broken the system is. Every city, every single major city in America right now is facing this crisis. We don’t have resources. We have used those resources historically and just in the past year to help in a very organized way asylees who are coming from places like Ukraine and Afghanistan. That’s not what is happening here. What is happening here is cartel members are getting paid money to deliver migrants to the border… I’ve been in Mexico, I’ve met with the highest level of leaders in Mexico and they are as concerned about this as we are…. This is unsustainable and cannot continue.
To see the full news conference, click here.
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