LAUSD Tries Pinching Pennies To Close Budget Gap

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While students and faculty protested in Los Angeles on March 4th, the Board of Education met to discuss budget woes. The second largest school district in the nation has a 640 million dollar deficit to close and did not receive federal education funds from the Race to the Top campaign. They will have to use any means necessary to close the budget, as Karen Marcus reports.

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LAUSD--the second largest school district in the nation--was passed over for federal funding. The Vice President of the LAUSD Board Yolie Flores said the reason was the poor relations with the union.
"Our union refused to sign off, Flores said. "And that's why we lost it. And not just our union statewide. CTA. We did it to ourselves."
After laying off more than 5,000 employees earlier this week, this comes as a big blow to the school district. LAUSD is still figuring out how to close the over 600 million dollar deficit. Board member Nury Martinez said politics are getting in the way.
"It's a shame because at the end of the day its kids who are we are trying to help," Martinez said, “And at the end of the day it will be a political tug of war and I'm just not hopeful."
They're pulling out all the stops.
LAUSD wants to tastefully use corporate advertising to bring in money.
"I just want us to be thoughtful and work with the schools on how we roll this out," said one of the board members. "You know we're not going to have medical marijuana dispensaries advertising on campus."
The board also wants to increase the number of furlough days and cut managerial staff. Board member Doctor Richard Vladovic thinks if done right the cuts won't hurt achievement.
"I think our vision needs to be we may be cutting but we are still demanding excellence and expecting excellence," Vladovic said, "Because you're hearing from all of the teachers unions and administrators unions you know what's going to happen to student achievement. I said my expectation is even higher. We're going to do it differently and we're going to do it better because we are all accountable."
But there might be no other alternatives. Eventually LAUSD will have to cut services.
"I don't want to do these cuts," one board member argued, "This is horrible."
The district wants to protect middle and high school students and increase class sizes in the lower grades.
Administrator Megan Reilly warned LAUSD not to cut middle and high school resources.
"Trying to learn algebra or trying to learn difficult skills in a class of 40 is probably not going to make you college prepared or job ready," Reilly said.
LAUSD is hoping LA voters will pass a parcel tax of 100 dollars per property owner in June and reduce the budget gap by 93 million dollars.
Until then LAUSD will be pinching pennies to make ends meet.
Karen Marcus, Annenberg Radio News.