Blame for Schools Budget Shortfall

In response to your editorial, “Plenty of Blame to Go Around,” March 9:

We, as members of the board of education, have been elected to take responsibility for making major policy decisions. We believe that it is extremely important to set the record straight. There are a variety of reasons why school districts have had budget shortfalls this year. The truth of the matter is that because of the terrible state of the economy, school districts all over California are in dire economic straits. Thirty-two school districts are on the verge of bankruptcy right now.

Over three years ago when the board made the decision to give salary raises to employees, there was no projection that there would be a major recession. As a matter of fact, salaries had to be reduced this year by 3%.

The budget deficit that Los Angeles Unified School District is experiencing is directly affected by the state budget shortfall and the recession. Currently, the state has a deficit of $5.2 billion. School district budgets are in direct relationship to a declining economy. Last year alone, $1.2 billion was taken away from our California schools.

The most recent $130-million shortfall that the board had to face came about for several reasons. Admittedly, it is extremely difficult to make absolutely accurate projections in a declining economy. For example, there was less lottery money and developer fees than had been anticipated. There was also a large increase in health benefit costs, and yes, some human error was involved.

However, the board depends on the experts they hire to give them the appropriate information to make the important decisions that must be made. If the information is incorrect, the board is in jeopardy and is unable to make accurate decisions. Employees must be held accountable for errors made.

We must make sure in the future that there are no further errors and that is why appropriate measures were taken. Our top priority must be to make sure that there is an adequate, dependable and stable funding system for public education. If we do not find a way to remedy this problem, we will lose a whole generation of children.

JULIE KORENSTEIN, ROBERTA WEINTRAUB, LAUSD Board Members