L.A. Unified Board Approves New Budget

The Los Angeles Board of Education approved a 1996-97 budget just shy of $5 billion on Monday, outlining the most ample spending plan in years thanks largely to a last-minute infusion of state funds.

Although the Los Angeles Unified School District’s enrollment grew only about 1% during the past year, its budget is jumping almost 9% to $4.89 billion, ending a run of fiscal cuts followed by several years of stagnant budgets.

“It is encouraging that we finally have a state that’s beginning to recognize its responsibility to children,” board President Jeff Horton said during a sparsely attended public hearing.

The budget begins to restore programs cut during the lean years of the economic downturn, ranging from teacher training to elementary music instruction.

“It’s kind of a strange feeling to come into a budget and not be making cuts,” said Julie Korenstein, the board’s most senior member.

But the image of boom times ahead for the state’s largest public school system is a little misleading, because much of the money comes with strings attached, including requirements that districts overhaul the way they teach reading and shrink the size of primary classes by more than a third.

And, since most of the additional money is reserved for such specific uses, the fatter budget may provide little or no raise for the urban district’s employees, a matter that is prompting union objections.

“Obviously, the governor has really pulled a number on us,” said United Teachers-Los Angeles President Day Higuchi. “It’s all restricted funds.”

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Under a three-year contract approved last year, district employees, who endured several years of deep pay cuts, were brought back to their 1991 salary levels and promised a share of any additional future money, but only if its use was unrestricted.

Higuchi said he believes there is some flexibility in the new budget and will work in the coming weeks to persuade district administrators that a raise would enhance their efforts to recruit the 2,600 teachers needed to reduce class size.

“It’s in their interest to do something to attract teachers to this district,” Higuchi said.

“A 3% raise would put both the [district’s] highest teacher salary and the entry-level teacher salary into the top 10% in the county.”

Of the five board members present Monday, only David Tokofsky voted against the budget, complaining that the document was unintelligible.

“What percent of the budget do we spend on books? What percent do we spend on parent training?” he asked.

“When you spend $5 billion of public money, you ought to have it in a way the public can understand.”

With California pulling out of its economic downturn, the state budget approved by the Legislature in mid-July provided a record $28 billion for education, including a 3.2% cost of living raise--only the third across-the-board increase since 1988.

That change helped increase per-student allocations, which represent the bulk of school funding, to $4,985.

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In addition, the state created new opportunities for districts to improve their fiscal straits, such as one-time grants for all schools of at least $25,000, to be used for such things as books and computers. That will add an estimated $46 million to the district’s coffers.

And in an effort to improve reading instruction, the state has set aside $971 million to be shared by districts that lower class size in kindergarten through third grade. Los Angeles expects to receive about 10% of that pot, and stands to get an additional $21 million to pay for teacher training and reading books if the district provides phonics-based reading instruction.

And many unknowns loom for Los Angeles Unified, including the price tag for complying with last year’s legal agreement to overhaul special education--which is estimated to cost $6 million this year alone--and the fate of a $2.4-billion local school repair and construction bond headed for the November ballot.

Even the new state class-size reduction money is hardly a windfall, since it only pays part of the cost of hiring teachers and creating enough space to scale back classes. Los Angeles Unified estimates it will have to spend at least $47 million more annually to reduce just first and second grades.