- Los Angeles Unified School District faces a $3.6 billion deficit, leading to thousands of layoffs and potential bankruptcy, as a result of overstaffing and delayed budget cuts.
On the brink of looming insolvency, Los Angeles Unified could have prevented its financial crisis by leaving vacated positions empty, making thousands of district employee layoffs unavoidable to address a $3.6 billion deficit, a top state fiscal watchdog said.
“They’re overstaffed significantly,” said Michel Fine, CEO of California’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team of the Los Angeles school district. “Our argument with them would be, ‘you should have started … a few years ago. Then attrition would have just taken care of the problem. Every time someone leaves, you shouldn’t be going out and replacing them. You should think through that.’ “
After authorizing layoffs for 3,200 non-teaching employees in February — including administrators and central office workers — just 657 were actually let go. And the $150 million savings from those cuts didn’t make much of a dent in overall spending…