Is the district’s deficit caused by spending down reserves?
To balance a recession-ravaged state budget, the legislature has slashed funding to K-12 education by $18 billion in the last four years. This means schools aren’t even getting the funding they are constitutionally guaranteed (click here to see a chart on this). California now ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending. For 2012-13, Governor Brown is proposing “flat funding” for schools, or funding at last year’s level. But flat funding isn’t really flat – it’s less. That’s because costs continue to rise. SCUSD will pay more next year for employee health insurance, classroom supplies, electricity, fuel, etc. In addition, we will receive fewer state dollars next year due to declining enrollment, a problem faced by many districts in aging urban neighborhoods, and the loss of federal one-time funds.
In 2011-12, the district brought back as many laid off counselors and teachers as possible. Of the 408 certificated employees who were pink-slipped, we rehired 368. The more teachers we have the smaller our class sizes. Reserves of $13.95 million were set aside to restore programs and $12 million of the reserve was used for this purpose. The remaining reserves were used to offset $2.5 million in mid-year state budget “trigger” reductions for 2011-12.
The state’s reduction in our funding, rising costs, declining enrollment, loss of one-time federal funds and the use of district reserves to restore positions and programs and offset trigger cuts has led to the projected deficit.
