Asleep at the Wheel, Again : LAUSD failure to ask for state funds may well punish students

Students in crowded schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District may be shortchanged because some nameless district administrator was asleep on the job. And this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened.

The state’s largest district needs construction money for 30 projects, but no one applied for state funds for most of these jobs during the last several years because Sacramento had no money to disburse. What a shortsighted decision. The dry spell was bound to end at some point, and the approval process can take years.

The dearth of state funds didn’t stop savvier administrators in other districts. They continued to pursue applications. Their proposed projects advanced along a lengthy and complicated bureaucratic road that includes a state review. Many of these projects got the green light in anticipation of state funds becoming available again. The foresight and diligence of those school officials are about to pay off.

Voter approval of Proposition 203, a $3-billion school bond measure on the March ballot, will soon put dollars in the pipeline. The State Allocation Board is expected to dole out the funds in May, but Los Angeles will be nowhere near the front of the line. That’s a shame.

The district’s needs are acute, aggravated by an enrollment projected to top 657,000 next year, further crowding aging LAUSD campuses. And yet some official missed the deadline to apply for funds? Why? Where was the supervision from the superintendent’s office and the board members who are so willing to micro-manage when parents complain about some teacher? The board needs fresh thinking. Newcomer David Tokofsky rightly insists that the district astutely play by the rules, but veterans seem to be conditioned to constant mistakes, missed deadlines and incessant pleas for special treatment.

Now that new money is available, the district will try to play catch-up by asking the state to rush through applications for $170 million. But given LAUSD’s sorry track record, the State Allocation Board will demand reassurances. The Los Angeles district needs to show it can be trusted to properly manage and spend state school construction money; otherwise, it can expect to forfeit millions at the expense of its students.

If Sacramento refuses to bend the rules, thousands of schoolchildren will be forced to learn their ABCs in some pretty uncomfortable conditions. Why should they be punished? The negligent administrators should take the heat.