Tamar Galatzan: LAUSD parents can't afford budget denial

by Tamar Galatzan | OpEd in the Daily News | http://bit.ly/wfsUOO

●●smf: This Op-ed was retweeted by DrDeasLAUSD at 6:23 this AM – so I think it’s safe to assume that it reflects the company line. Ms. Galatzan has positioned herself previously as a questioning fiscal maverick – unfortunately here she is throwing in with the “we have no choice but to continue to gut public education in order to  balance the budget” argument. School Board Members are public trustees – but the the trust they maintain is the safety, health, education and well-being of our greatest treasure – our children. They cannot do that and balance this budget in this situation. So the real hard choice – the Profiles in Courage moment – will come when four of them draw the line in the sand and say to Sacramento and to the voters and taxpayers and parents and beancounters that they cannot balance the budget and maintain the trust they were elected to maintain – so instead they will do what’s best for children.  In the legal semantics bankruptcy is not an option – but in a very real sense it is. In receivership the state would be directly obligated to fulfill the promise of the California Constitution  to provide the education called for in the Ed Code. In receivership there would be no whistles and bells – and parts of collective bargaining agreements  would be suspended – but the promise would be kept. To balance the budget in the ways proposed  is to embrace failure. To claim that there is no other option is to confine the thinking  inside the box and to focus inward.

3/08/2012 05:22:17 PM PST The current financial crisis for the Los Angeles Unified School District is heartbreaking, infuriating and real. Research-tested programs that are a lifeline to thousands of people are likely to be eliminated completely, or cut to subsistence levels.

As in cities and towns up and down California, our students are already suffering from five years of cuts. Every cut we make from here on out is going to be felt in every community, every school and every classroom.

Still, people resist the truth. When I go to meetings, to town halls, to schools, or talk to parents, and describe the district's budget situation, they say, "Cut administrative staff," or "Use the emergency funds," or "Eliminate waste."

There are no secret stashes of money. This is no longer a deficit we can cut our way out of.

On Tuesday the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board will vote on a budget balancing plan for 2012-13. The budget balancing plan is not the district's final budget. That will not be adopted until after the state passes its budget in June.

But under state law, the district must follow a strict timeline and adopt a plan now to maintain fiscal solvency and retain its ability to lay people off, if necessary. Next week, 11,000 employees will receive preliminary reduction-in-force notices.

In order to put out layoff notices to teachers in a timely manner (teachers must receive their notices by March 15 to allow the district to lay them

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off next year), the district must adopt a budget balancing plan now, even though we have no idea how much money there will ultimately be in the June state budget.

Here are some things we do know: The state now owes LAUSD $1 billion. State funding for education has been cut 16 percent since 2008 -- more than any other part of the budget. LAUSD has laid off 8,000 people in the last four years. We have cut administrative staff, teachers, librarians and janitors. We have lost transportation funds and raised class size. We are now ranked 46th in the nation in funding per pupil, and 50th in the nation in student-to-teacher ratios.

As Superintendent John Deasy told the school board last month, "We can barely afford the legally required minimum levels of service for our students."

The superintendent and his staff put together a fiscal plan from the ground up, starting with the barest necessities we are required to pay for as a district.

Those include minimum staffing levels required by law, meeting the California Education Code, abiding by court orders/decrees and settlements, meeting our bargaining agreements, allocating 95 percent of all money to school operations, and allocating just 5 percent of funds to administrative costs in local districts and central office operations.

After paying for the minimum levels of service, the school district has only $353 million for all other staff and programs across the entire district.

We are faced with making horrifying cuts. At present, we are looking at eliminating most of adult education and early education, cutting all arts education in elementary school, getting rid of after-school programs at 560 sites across the district, and eliminating full-time librarians at secondary schools.

Every one of these programs is worthwhile and changes lives. Their success is supported by research, and their elimination will send ripples out across our city. Cities like Glendale and Long Beach, which have already eliminated or nearly eliminated their adult education programs due to continued budget shortfalls, can tell you of the devastating effect of that decision. And Long Beach increased class size in its K-3 classes to close to 30 a couple of years ago.

There are three ways to approach the budget deficit: We can increase revenue. We can cut make deeper cuts in programs, or we can encourage our bargaining partners to give something up to help make up the difference.

Believe things are as bad as they sound. Educate yourselves. Our children deserve better.

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Tamar Galatzan is a member of the LAUSD Board of Education, representing parts of the San Fernando Valley.