L.A. Unified Faces More Cuts to Balance Budget

The Los Angeles Board of Education got its first glimpse Tuesday of additional cuts needed to balance the school district’s 2005-06 budget, including scrapping a $14-million attendance incentive program and reducing the special education books and supplies budget by $10 million.

Officials said the Los Angeles Unified School District will have to make about $221.6 million in reductions to balance its budget, estimated to be about $6.4 billion for the coming fiscal year.

Nearly $129 million in cuts were presented to the board in Tuesday’s budget and finance committee meeting. The board approved $168 million in cuts in January, of which $92.8 million will be implemented; the remaining cuts were later deemed unfeasible.

“This is not the budget we wanted to bring,” Supt. Roy Romer said to open the meeting. “This is the budget we have to bring.”

The district is facing a budget shortfall largely because of a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to withhold the school funding that Proposition 98, approved by voters in 1988, requires. The law set up a funding formula that provides schools with at least 40% of the state’s budget each year and increases education spending with revenue.

The governor and education groups agreed last year to withhold about $2.2 billion in state funds due to schools under Proposition 98. The governor promised that he would reinstate Proposition 98’s provisions the following year and would not tamper with it again.

Instead, Schwarzenegger proposed a budget in January that would again withhold the guaranteed funds from schools and announced that he would seek voter permission to amend Proposition 98. The California budget was facing an $8.5-billion gap at the time.

In addition, the board agreed in March to give the district’s 45,000 teachers a new contract that would give them 2% pay raises, which are retroactive to July 2004 and would cost the district about $76 million.

Budget Director Roger Rasmussen said the district tried to find cuts in areas where the amount authorized by the budget was more than the actual expense.

For example, the proposal included decreasing funding for nonpublic schools by $18 million and reducing Social Security contributions by $8 million, both overbudgeted in previous years.

An additional $40 million of the shortfall would be covered by a bond initiative that must be approved by voters. If the initiative fails, the money would come from Measure R, the $3.87-billion facilities bond issue that voters approved in March 2004, which would mean some projects would be delayed or dropped.

About $14 million will come from cutting Count Me In, a program that offered incentives such as movie tickets, coin holders and certificates to students for good attendance.

“While it was an exciting initiative, it didn’t work,” said Chief Financial Officer Charles A. Burbridge. Although the program was successful at some schools, he said, it didn’t improve attendance districtwide.

Also facing a $1-million funding cut is the Education Options program, a dropout prevention effort.

“Our job is to keep the cuts as far away from the kids as possible,” said board member Marlene Canter.

The board is required to approve a final budget by Sept. 8.