Some Real Budget Numbers from LAUSD

When I popped my head into the Superintendent’s office yesterday afternoon, after spending most of my time at LAUSD headquarters meeting with various department heads, he was being interviewed by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal.  My plan was to wave and move on.  But as is typical of him, he was overjoyed to give us a minute and immediately invited us in and made introductions. I think the reporter was a little surprised.  But that is how he is – extremely enthusiastic and excited to be doing what he’s doing.  And, trust me, he is doing something.

 

If you read the LA Times, you have no doubt been scared out or your mind over the state of public education.  And rightly so.  Mistakes, mismanagement and probably out and out incompetence has definitely been an issue at the District level over the years. Right now, however, we’re looking at cuts coming from Sacramento on pretty much a weekly basis. And they’re big cuts.  Superintendent Cortines is doing everything he can to try to make a silk purse out of the sow’s ear that he’s been handed.

 

One of the things that we heard is that the unions have formed a coalition in order to work together with the District for the greater good of all employees. UTLA is a member of the coalition, at least on paper, but as the largest and most contentious of the unions, my guess is that it will participate – until it doesn’t.

 

As parents, we are desperately concerned about the budget and the ramifications of the cuts in funding in the classroom.  Because of the rumors and misinformation floating around, I thought it might be useful to provide some numbers.

 

This is information fresh from LAUSD, but we were warned that the numbers for 2009-2010 change – a lot.  The anatomy of the cuts starting at the beginning of the current school year is as follows:

 

MASSIVE DEFICITS IN 2008-2009

·         $427 million initially cut

·         $140 million mid-year cut

·         $131 million in May – revise cut

 

Given that the May 19^th initiatives failed, this is what we’re looking at for 2009-2010 - a total deficit of $273 million.  That figure is calculated by combining the deficit figures from 2008-2009 with the new (current as of approximately now) deficit figures for 2009-2010.

 

2008-2009 deficit of $131 million

2009-2010 deficit of $142 million

 

The District is scrambling to figure out how to plug the giant holes.  There is some good news – or at least, not more bad news.  Due to the acceptance of early retirement offers, and repurchasing by School District Site Counsels, 3,717 jobs have been saved and pink slips rescinded.  The Superintendent made the decision to let the schools decide how to spend the Title 1 Stimulus money, believing that they know best where their school needs the most support. The other side of that, however, is that from what I can tell, 2,254 jobs are still going to be cut.

 

Other cuts are being made too.  Summer school was among the first to go.  District employees at Beaudry (the headquarters) are going to be working a 10 month year.  This comes in the form of approximately 45 furlough days, which amounts to a 15% pay cut.  Other cuts are on the table in terms of further cuts to central departments and possible cuts to after-school programs.  But let’s not panic about that yet.  We have enough to worry about with what’s in front of us.

 

Victoria