Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walters: School Districts Set Poor Example for Students
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
February 10, 2019

Share

There’s bitter irony in the loud complaints from California school officials and unions – particularly in large urban districts – about not having enough money.


Opinion
Dan Walters
CALmatters Commentary

LA Unified’s teachers union struck, demanding salary increases, lower class sizes and other costly items, even though the district was already projecting multi-billion-dollar deficits.
Schools are supposed to be teaching our children how to become productive and responsible adults, but by overspending revenues, blaming others for their fiscal problems and demanding bailouts, they are setting poor examples.
We just saw a prime – but, unfortunately, not isolated – example in Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school system.
LA Unified’s teachers union struck, demanding salary increases, lower class sizes and other costly items, even though the district was already projecting multi-billion-dollar deficits.
The strike’s settlement will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, in a strongly worded analysis, called it “unsustainable on an ongoing basis.”
Characteristically, district officials and United Teachers of Los Angeles blame others for the widening gap between income and outgo, particularly a burgeoning charter school movement that has lured about 150,000 students, and their financial support, away from LA Unified.

LA Unified Is Not an Isolated Example

The school board called for a moratorium on new charters – ignoring the simple fact that parents turned to charters because their children were not succeeding in LA Unified’s schools. Civil rights groups, meanwhile, warned the board not to finance the new contract with funds specified to raise the academic performances of poor and other “high-needs” students.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who enjoyed strong support from school unions last year, immediately asked state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond, also strongly tied to the unions, to study the financial impact of charter school diversions.
Los Angeles’ school officials also cited rising pension costs for their financial woes. However, as the Legislature’s budget analyst pointed out last week, in analyzing Newsom’s plan to pump more state money into the teachers’ retirement fund, “School funding … has grown by nearly $22 billion (37 percent) over the past six years, significantly outpacing growth in pension costs.” In other words, the complaints about pension costs are something of a red herring.
As mentioned above, LA Unified is not an isolated example. In 2017, when Sacramento Unified’s teachers were threatening to strike, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg mediated a new contract that gave teachers an 11 percent raise. Later, it emerged that the salary increases would come from a reserve set aside for pension fund payments.

School Districts Are Hoping for Bailouts

Sacramento County schools superintendent David Gordon warned Sacramento Unified several times that its budget was faulty and he eventually disapproved it. The district now is one of four districts on the “negative certification” list maintained by the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team for budgetary mismanagement.

School districts overspending their revenues are hoping for bailouts from Sacramento and/or voter approval of a pending ballot measure that would strip property tax limits from commercial real estate, raising as much as $10 billion a year.
And then there’s San Diego Unified. Last year, to partially close a looming budget deficit, it tapped into one-time funds, much like LA Unified is doing to finance its new contract, even though the district’s official policy is not to employ that irresponsible practice.
School districts overspending their revenues are hoping for bailouts from Sacramento and/or voter approval of a pending ballot measure that would strip property tax limits from commercial real estate, raising as much as $10 billion a year.
However, a new Public Policy Institute of California poll indicates that voters are not embracing the so-called “split roll” measure and the commercial real estate industry has pledged to spend $100 million to defeat it.
By example, school officials and school unions are teaching students that it’s all right to run up credit card bills, blame others for overspending and then cross their fingers that someone will bail them out.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

DON'T MISS

Elon Musk Sells X to His Own xAI for $33 Billion in All-Stock Deal

DON'T MISS

US Naval Academy Ends Affirmative Action in Admissions

DON'T MISS

Elon Musk Backtracks on a Legally Questionable Plan to Pay Voters

DON'T MISS

Appeals Court Clears Way for DOGE to Keep Operating at USAID

DON'T MISS

Trump Pledges US Aid for Asia Quake Despite Former Official Saying System in ‘Shambles’

DON'T MISS

Is Fresno Political Consultant Alex Tavlian Behind Election Attack Mailer?

DON'T MISS

Gronk-a-Mania Set to Run Wild Over WrestleMania Weekend

DON'T MISS

Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Dismantling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

DON'T MISS

St. Agnes’ Newest Robot Promises Less Invasive Surgeries, Faster Recoveries

DON'T MISS

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

US Naval Academy Ends Affirmative Action in Admissions

UP NEXT

Elon Musk Backtracks on a Legally Questionable Plan to Pay Voters

UP NEXT

Appeals Court Clears Way for DOGE to Keep Operating at USAID

UP NEXT

Trump Pledges US Aid for Asia Quake Despite Former Official Saying System in ‘Shambles’

UP NEXT

Is Fresno Political Consultant Alex Tavlian Behind Election Attack Mailer?

UP NEXT

Gronk-a-Mania Set to Run Wild Over WrestleMania Weekend

UP NEXT

Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Dismantling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

UP NEXT

St. Agnes’ Newest Robot Promises Less Invasive Surgeries, Faster Recoveries

UP NEXT

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

UP NEXT

Why the Nation Would Be Wise to Support a Third Term Amendment for Donald Trump

Appeals Court Clears Way for DOGE to Keep Operating at USAID

15 hours ago

Trump Pledges US Aid for Asia Quake Despite Former Official Saying System in ‘Shambles’

15 hours ago

Is Fresno Political Consultant Alex Tavlian Behind Election Attack Mailer?

16 hours ago

Gronk-a-Mania Set to Run Wild Over WrestleMania Weekend

17 hours ago

Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Dismantling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

17 hours ago

St. Agnes’ Newest Robot Promises Less Invasive Surgeries, Faster Recoveries

17 hours ago

California Food Banks Brace for Funding Cuts, and Not Only From the Trump Administration

18 hours ago

Why the Nation Would Be Wise to Support a Third Term Amendment for Donald Trump

18 hours ago

RIP, Bill Lyles: One of Fresno’s Most Iconic Builders and Philanthropists

18 hours ago

Madera Authorities Seize 80 Pounds of Meth, Arrest Two Suspects

19 hours ago

Elon Musk Sells X to His Own xAI for $33 Billion in All-Stock Deal

JACKSONVILLE, Mi — Elon Musk has sold social media site X to his own xAI artificial intelligence company in a $33 billion all-stock deal, th...

15 hours ago

15 hours ago

Elon Musk Sells X to His Own xAI for $33 Billion in All-Stock Deal

15 hours ago

US Naval Academy Ends Affirmative Action in Admissions

15 hours ago

Elon Musk Backtracks on a Legally Questionable Plan to Pay Voters

15 hours ago

Appeals Court Clears Way for DOGE to Keep Operating at USAID

15 hours ago

Trump Pledges US Aid for Asia Quake Despite Former Official Saying System in ‘Shambles’

16 hours ago

Is Fresno Political Consultant Alex Tavlian Behind Election Attack Mailer?

17 hours ago

Gronk-a-Mania Set to Run Wild Over WrestleMania Weekend

17 hours ago

Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Dismantling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend