An Era to Weigh Radical Ideas : In view of financial crisis in schools, union’s proposals deserve scrutiny

The Los Angeles Unified School District faces yet another crippling financial crisis that threatens the education of nearly 650,000 children. This time it must cut $400 million more from a budget already devastated by years of massive cuts.

United Teachers-Los Angeles, the district’s largest labor union, has proposed several radical ideas that ordinarily might have been dismissed out of hand. But given the situation, some of UTLA’s ideas, drastic as they may be, deserve scrutiny.

UTLA’s chief recommendation is that the superintendent earn no more than the highest-paid teacher in the L.A. schools. The union also suggests pay cuts for other administrators. That may be unrealistic for all the administrators, but it should prompt a thorough salary review for all personnel.

And if administrators are forced to accept less pay for more work, what are teachers and other employees willing to give up? Are district employees willing to give up any part of their generous health benefits? Are they willing to pay higher medical deductibles, or make do with fewer vision and dental benefits?

Are teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers and other district employees willing to accept an across-the-board pay cut? Saving the district from the threat of bankruptcy may require that kind of deep and painful sacrifice on top of the 3% “loan” that employees gave the district earlier this year.

That salary give-back was justifiable, in part, because the school board approved three years of well-deserved raises for teachers. But the state funded only part of those steep raises. So the district had to make up the gap at a time when other state cuts were forcing the school board to slash $700 million out of the budget even while enrollment was surging.

The school board must make these new cuts, or come up with additional revenue, before the end of this month. Making that deadline will require major sacrifices. To spread the pain, the board should approve a major restructuring that reduces administration, grants more authority to classroom teachers and guarantees more parity in salaries. Major changes must be part of any bargain.