The Los Angeles Times reported on November 4, 2015, that the LAUSD is headed for a major funding shortfall.
In my 35 years of teaching in Los Angeles, LAUSD always follows the same pattern:
First, the forecast of financial doom in the future.
Then, oh where can we cut, oh where can we cut?
Let’s give the teachers furlough days.
Let’s cut the lowest paid school employees—custodians, clerks, teacher assistants, gardeners, and cafeteria workers.
Following the fear of the cuts among the employees threatened, they start to cut supplies, Gifted funds, special education specialists, field trips, competitive sports, music and art, and they send reduction in force notices to thousands of teachers while implying that the teachers not terminated will have to pick up the slack with even larger class sizes.
Not one word is even mentioned about Channel 58—the license, the equipment, and the building;
Not one word is ever mentioned about the superfluous downtown bureaucracy with their perks and privileges;
Not one word is ever mentioned about selling the Beaudry downtown headquarters;
Not one word is ever mentioned about the district cars and other waste.
No one ever considers the financial costs of the tests and the test preparation materials.
Hiring outside law firms when the district has lawyers on staff is more important to them than the children.
And what would they do without a public relations department or district paid lobbyists?
They always balance the budget on the back of the students and the teachers.