Published
4 years agoon
The union that represents teachers in the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, is claiming that its six-day strike produced a victory, and local media are echoing that line.
Over the last eight years, since Jerry Brown’s election as governor in 2010, state and local spending on schools has increased from $49.7 billion to $77.9 billion, and with enrollment stagnant or even dropping, per-pupil spending has jumped by more than 50 percent to nearly $12,000 a year, not counting federal funds.
The increases, according to the Legislature’s budget analyst, mean “California per-pupil spending ranks in the middle among the states.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget puts another $3 billion into general support for schools and makes a one-time payment into the State Teachers Retirement System to slightly decrease schools’ pension fund payments, which have been rising sharply to shore up the troubled trust fund.
So why have LA Unified, and several other large urban districts been operating in the red?
Related Story: LA Teachers Go on Strike in 2nd-Largest US School District
Many are seeing enrollment declines, exacerbated in LA Unified’s case by parents pulling their kids out of the system, which has a poor record of academic achievement, and placing them in charter schools. School financing is largely driven by enrollment, so that hits.Finally, the heavy politicization of large urban districts creates a pressure cooker atmosphere that induces expedient decisions, such as granting raises that they cannot afford. Sacramento Unified, for instance, shifted money from a pension reserve to pay for a new teacher contract in response to a strike threat.
Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He has written more than 9,000 columns about the state and its politics and is the founding editor of the “California Political Almanac.” Dan has also been a frequent guest on national television news shows, commenting on California issues and policies.
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