Top Takeaways
- The Los Angeles Unified School District faces potential layoffs as a result of a $191 million deficit.
- Ninety percent of the district’s budget is spent on personnel.
- LAUSD’s enrollment declined by more than 3% to 389,000 in the 2025-26 academic year.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is weighing layoffs that could reshape classrooms across the nation’s second-largest school district.
The district’s board at next week’s meeting is expected to decide whether to cut jobs, as it faces a projected $191 million deficit in the 2027-28 school year if it keeps spending at its current pace. The deficits in LAUSD and other districts are driven largely by the loss of Covid relief funds, declining enrollment and rising costs.Meanwhile, labor unions throughout the state are pushing many districts for pay raises and other changes, such as increased health care contributions in their next contracts.“When your cuts are driven by declining enrollment, which means declining caseload, you’re not left with a whole lot of choice,” said Michael Fine, the CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, an agency that works to help educational agencies in sustaining healthy finances.
“Where you need to cut then is the classroom,” he said. “Because you need fewer classrooms, you need fewer teachers, fewer aides, fewer of folks that are at the sites directly serving kids.”Los Angeles Unified is not alone among California’s school districts facing financial pressures. The Sacramento City Unified School District must close a deficit or face state receivership. Pasadena Unified plans to implement job cuts to address its budget shortfall…