Sunday, November 23, 2008

The news that didn’t fit from Nov 23th

Cortines & Reilly explain it all for you: SPECIAL TELEVISED INFORMATIONAL MEETING ON THE LAUSD BUDGET CRISIS

Monday, November 24th @ 3:30 PM on KLCS | Channel 58

check your cable listings

SUPERINTENDENT DAVID BREWER’S REPORT CARD: It’s The L.A. Times That Fails To Make The Grade

November 18, 2008 - The Los Angeles Times newspaper has rarely offered a fair and balanced portrayal of the black community. It usually was (is) a strategic player in the witch hunt to depose black leaders, no matter who they were (are). Whether it was former Lt Govenor Mervyn Dymally, the late Mayor Tom Bradley, former Police Chief, Willie Williams or now their latest target, Los Angeles Unified School District, David Brewer, you could rarely ever expect to read anything positive about local black leadership in the L.A. Times.

CALIFORNIA IS CUTTING EDUCATION FUNDING AT ITS OWN PERIL

The costs to the state in the long run will be much greater than the expense of supporting our schools now.

With California's budget now facing an $11-billion shortfall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed billions of dollars in spending cuts, most of them aimed at the state's already beleaguered schools, colleges and universities.

L.A. UNIFIED CONSIDERS STARK MIDYEAR BUDGET CUTS

The district almost certainly will have to reopen this year's budget and find about $200 million to $400 million to meet an anticipated shortfall. Larger class sizes, layoffs and early retirement are increasingly possible.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has developed stark new plans including larger class sizes, layoffs and early retirement incentives to deal with a worsening state budget situation.

District officials -- already in the process of identifying $400 million in cuts for next year -- almost certainly will have to reopen this year's budget and find about $200 million to $400 million to meet an anticipated shortfall. The budget-cutting is becoming a painfully familiar routine: Officials had to eliminate 680 jobs just to balance the books last June.

2 from The Times: DO THE MATH + GIVE SCHOOLS LEEWAY

L.A. UNIFIED NEEDS TO DO THE MATH

Facing millions in cuts, the school board has to become financially prudent and focus on its core mission. Now that the Los Angeles Unified School District has more construction money than it knows what to do with, all it needs is enough money to operate the schools it already has.

GIVE SCHOOLS LEEWAY ON USING FUNDS

If state and federal authorities can't give California schools extra money, they might look at providing flexibility in letting schools allocate what they do get.

For California's schools, the question of the state budget shortfall comes down to this: Will they have an utterly unthinkable year, or just a horrible year? Even if the Legislature approves new taxes or other ways to raise revenue, the current projection is that $2.5 billion will be cut immediately from education.

The prospect of a sudden drop in funding has school officials so flummoxed that many are engaged in magical thinking, insisting that extra revenue must be found, somehow, somewhere. These days are short on fairy dust, though. The federal government, the most likely source of financial aid, is besieged with bailout requests.

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