[my_adsense_shortcode_1]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a bill on Sunday that may have made free condoms available all public high school scholars, arguing it was once too pricey for a state with a budget deficit of greater than $30 billion.
California had about 1.9 million high school scholars enrolled in additional than 4,000 colleges closing 12 months, in accordance to the California Department of Education.
“This bill would create an unfunded mandate to public schools that should be considered in the annual budget process,” Newsom wrote in a message explaining why he vetoed the bill, referred to as Senate bill 541.
The bill is one among masses handed by means of California’s Democratic-dominated state Legislature prior to lawmakers adjourned closing month. Newsom has been signing and vetoing regulation since then, together with rejecting expenses on Saturday to ban caste-based discrimination, limit the price of insulin and decriminalize possession and use of some hallucinogens.
The bill would have required all public colleges that experience grades 9 via 12 to make condoms available for free to all scholars. It would have required public colleges with grades seven via 12 to permit condoms to be made available as a part of tutorial or public well being methods.
And it could have made it unlawful for shops to refuse to promote condoms to formative years.
State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from Los Angeles and the creator of the bill, had argued the bill would have helped “youth who decide to become sexually active to protect themselves and their partners from (sexually transmitted infections), while also removing barriers that potentially shame them and lead to unsafe sex.”
Newsom stated methods expanding get entry to to condoms are “important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health.” But he stated this bill was once one among a number of measures lawmakers handed this 12 months that, when added in combination, would upload $19 billion in prices to the state funds.
“With our state facing continuing economic risk and revenue uncertainty, it is important to remain disciplined when considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure,” Newsom stated.
Also on Sunday, Newsom signed a regulation aimed a electrifying the state’s fleet of school buses. Starting in 2035, the regulation would require any new bus bought or shrunk by means of school districts to be zero-emission.
California’s public school districts that supply their very own transportation personal about 15,800 school buses, of which 10,800 are powered by means of diesel gas, in accordance to a 2022 document from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
The regulation is a part of California’s plan to segment out using fossil fuels. State rules will ban the sale of new gas-powered cars in California by means of 2035.
