Want a 60% drop out rate? LAUSD. Want a district where an estimated 50% of student’s are illegal aliens? LAUSD. Want a district where decisions are made in the union hall, not at school district HQ? LAUSD.
Want a district afraid of firing sexual perverts in the classroom? LAUSD.
Want a fiscally out of control, deficit ridden district? LAUSD.
“The district’s budget deficit stood at $640 million. More than 2,000 employees had just been laid off. The school board had just approved a deal giving teachers five unpaid furlough days, and cutting five days from the academic calendar.
Yet the district managed to spend $416 million on health insurance premiums for teachers and retirees, with no contribution from the insured parties. Somehow it was able to spend $47 million on automatic, annual salary increases for teachers who remained on staff.
The district also managed to spend a whopping $382 million for substitute teachers and $62 million on an “instructional coaches” program.”
LAUSD is why government schools need to go. We have more than enough money for quality education. We will never have enough money for LAUSD or the unions.
Sucking the Life Out of America’s Public Schools
The Expense of Teachers Union Contracts
United Teachers Los Angeles Contract
Written by Steve Gunn, Research by Victor Skinner, EAG,Summer, 2012
LAYOFFS, FURLOUGH DAYS AND RUNAWAY LABOR
SPENDING IN LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS
Headed into the 2010-11 school year, one could have easily assumed that the Los Angeles Unified School District had no money to waste.
The district’s budget deficit stood at $640 million. More than 2,000 employees had just been laid off. The school board had just approved a deal giving teachers five unpaid furlough days, and cutting five days from the academic calendar.
Yet the district managed to spend $416 million on health insurance premiums for teachers and retirees, with no contribution from the insured parties. Somehow it was able to spend $47 million on automatic, annual salary increases for teachers who remained on staff.
The district also managed to spend a whopping $382 million for substitute teachers and $62 million on an “instructional coaches” program.
Those highly questionable expenses, and many more, can be traced to the collective
bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated between the school board and the United Teachers of Los Angeles.
We studied the 2007-11 CBA, identified various provisions that appeared to be expensive, then secured the corresponding costs for the 2010-11 school year through a freedom of information request.
It turns out that LAUSD was indeed spending big bucks on many employee perks that have no connection to student learning. And this was happening as the school board continued to eliminate crucial instructional hours from the district schedule.
We strongly suspect the pricey items we discovered are only part of the story. We believe there are many other provisions in the 349-page CBA we did not inspect that cost the district even more money.
Some of the expenditures we list below may not come from the district’s general fund. Some may be financed with state dollars or other sources of outside revenue. But if the money existed to pay for union perks and unnecessary programs, why can’t money be found to prevent teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and furlough days?
Sadly the situation has not improved in the nation’s second-largest school district. The school board and teachers union recently concluded a deal that will eliminate another five days of classroom instruction in 2012-13 and result in the layoff of another 1,300 employees.
The district has now eliminated a total of 18 days of instruction over the past four years.
Shamefully, there are still no signs that the school board is ready to confront the teachers union about runaway labor costs. Apparently the employees come first in Los Angeles, and students are an afterthought.
Parents and taxpayers should rise up and demand that more money be directed toward
student needs, rather than extras for unionized staff.
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