SKITTISH SCHOOL START

Mark Lacter • LA Observed blog | September 9 2009 9:11 AM

District officials begin the year $140 million in the hole - and that's after $869 million in cost-cutting measures. Already, students can expect crowded classrooms, fewer teachers and limited services. The latest money woe involves not getting enough federal stimulus dollars to offset the losses from a grant program. Emergency legislation has been introduced that would prevent the cuts. From the Daily News:

"We are glad that this problem may be fixed," said Megan Reilly, LAUSD's chief financial officer. "However, we won't believe it's fixed until it's really fixed." Already listed as potential cuts in the coming years are the complete elimination of arts and music programs and full-day kindergarten. Also, student teacher ratios in K-3 classes, which have already grown from 20-to-1 to 24-to-1, could grow to 29-to-1. More cuts could mean fewer nurses, psychologists, counselors and librarians - who have already been severely cut back.

story continues with wsj lead in, quoted above.