May 24, 2011

DailyBreeze.com - With thousands of jobs at stake, the rhetoric between Los Angeles Unified officials and the teachers union heated up Tuesday as each side accused the other of not negotiating in good faith over plans to close a $408 million budget gap.

Superintendent John Deasy lamented that United Teachers Los Angeles has rejected an agreement that six other unions have signed, calling for six furlough days in exchange for saving thousands of jobs. If signed by all nine unions, the deal would save about 5,700 jobs, although the district would still make about 1,900 layoffs.

UTLA argues the district can now afford to save every job and have no furloughs whatsoever after Gov. Jerry Brown released a revised state budget that increases school funding statewide by $3 billion.

"We are very much against the clock on this issue," Deasy said. "We have met 16 times with UTLA since March 24 and I am still looking for a counterproposal from UTLA."

UTLA leaders denounced Deasy's suggestion that they are dragging their feet in negotiations and accused the schools chief of trying to make his case through the media rather than at the table.

"He's negotiating in public, albeit subtly," UTLA President A.J. Duffy said during an interview. "And that forces us into an uncomfortable position."

Deasy has been superintendent for less than six weeks, but the tension between him and Duffy has been building recently over issues that include LAUSD's proposal to try out a new teacher evaluation system and the district's decision to give charter schools rights to operate some low-performing district campuses.

The union has filed several complaints with the state's public employee relations board and a court injunction to block the new evaluation system.

Deasy has sent critical messages via Twitter about UTLA's inability to agree to furloughs and its desire to block some reforms that union leaders have criticized.

"My good friend Mr. Deasy, ... when I see certain comments in the media, it seems like you're saying that we're not negotiating, and we have been for weeks," Duffy said during the board meeting.

"My very good friend, Mr. Duffy," Deasy replied. "You know I take your advice and only believe nine-tenths of what I read in the newspaper. ... You and I both know what really happens at the table."

Whatever the talks behind closed doors have been, in public UTLA leaders are refusing the idea of agreeing to any furlough package that doesn't save all educators' jobs. Officials said the 1,900 layoffs are still necessary because of the district's declining enrollment.

During a picket and protest at the school district's downtown headquarters Tuesday, several hundred educators chanted and held signs demanding that the district rescind the more than 5,000 layoff notices sent to educators.

Diana Cervantes, a fourth-grade teacher at Eshelman Elementary School in Lomita, said she received a layoff notice this year after teaching for seven years. She said it is stressful not knowing whether a deal will be reached and her job will be saved. But Cervantes said she understands the union's reasons for taking a hard position at the bargaining table.

"The district needs to justify why we need these furloughs," she said. "Up until this point they haven't been able to do that yet."

The union believes that the state's updated budget plan, which reported increases in state revenue and included a $3 billion increase for school funding, will bring at least $300 million to LAUSD.

Deasy said Tuesday that he is going to be cautious about counting on any money when state officials have said that, without the approval of a series of tax extensions, schools could still see more cuts. However, he said he has agreed to count on the state repaying $154 million in IOUs that it has previously failed to make good on.

School board member Richard Vladovic said he supported Deasy's cautious budgeting approach.

"Deasy is already taking a risk," Vladovic said. "When people say let's save all our employees, I'm going to say we have done everything possible. ... Now we need our union's help."

The unions that have agreed to the furlough deal represent administrators, school police, building and trades and other nonteaching positions. Teamsters and the CSEA, representing office workers, campus aides and custodians, have also not agreed to the furlough deal.


The Teachers' Union Mantra: It's for the Kids!

The nation’s public schools employ more than 6 million workers, and instructional staff receive about $295 billion in salary and benefits, according to federal estimates ... All told, personnel costs—the salaries and benefits that sustain the K-12 workforce—consume about 80 percent of school districts' budgets, and many policymakers are determined to drive those expenses down. Yet reducing those costs is not as simple as chopping away at the state or local education budget, or eliminating programs or services. State pension systems, which typically cover teachers, generally are protected by state constitutions and other laws, and courts have made it difficult to reduce benefits for current enrollees. And teachers’ salary schedules and health-care costs are often protected by hard-fought collective bargaining agreements at the local level. There’s a lot of money at stake. [Sean Cavanagh, Personnel costs prove tough to contain, Education Week, January 12, 2011]

Cash-strapped Public Schools Nickel-and-Dime Parents

While Los Angeles students, teachers and others rallied against proposed budget cuts that would eliminate many teaching and staff positions throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District, public school districts want to stick it to the parents by charging registration and instruction fees [Doug DeYoung, Senator Walker’s Forum Letter on Education, North Michigan Business Blog, May 27, 2011].

May 25, 2011

The Lookout - Whatever problems may now dog our public education system, at least every child can get a free education, right? Well, not exactly.

Crafty K-12 administrators who are battling budget cuts have found creative ways to bring in extra revenue through fees for anything from enrolling in honor courses to mandatory "registration" or "instruction" fees, The Wall Street Journal's Stephanie Simon writes.

Simon reports that some schools are asking parents to pay for honors and specialty classes up-front, saying they would otherwise have to eliminate those courses altogether. Parents have also been asked to pay for biology-lab goggles, workbooks--sometimes even printer ink. (In some cases, administrators waive the fees for low-income students, but there is still the possibility that the fees can scare poorer kids away from honors courses.)

At Blue Valley School District in Kansas, it costs $235 just to enroll, as administrators hiked fees more than 50 percent this year. Simon profiled an Ohio family who spent nearly $4,500 enrolling their children in basic courses, electives, and extracurricular activities at Medina Senior High.

In most states, it's illegal to charge for core classes, but schools can charge for broadly defined "supplemental materials."

Could Spike in Tax Revenues Ease States’ Fiscal Crises?

May 25, 2011

The Lookout - Could the dire fiscal situations in which many states have found themselves lately be set to ease up a bit? There's new evidence that this could be the case--but the states aren't out of the woods yet.

Preliminary data on state tax collections show that revenue from major tax sources increased by 9.1 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same months in 2010. That represented the third straight quarter of increased revenues. The data was compiled by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and included 47 early-reporting states.

The biggest proportional boost to state coffers came from personal income taxes, which spiked by 12.4 percent--the biggest jump since the middle of 2006, near the peak of the boom. Michigan's rose by over 200 percent.

Meanwhile, corporate income tax revenue rose by 6.9 percent, and sales tax revenue by 5.6 percent.

The increased revenue will go some way toward fixing states' budget shortfalls, which have led many states to institute far-reaching spending cuts in order to balance their books. For instance, California, which has made cuts to education among other services, saw tax revenue rise by $1.4 billion--or around 15 percent of its $9.6 billion budget gap.

Still, many state budget are a long way from healthy. Even with the increase, tax collections remained 3.1 percent below the level they were at in early 2008, as the recession was beginning.

The larger take this quarter wasn't primarily the result of tax hikes. Rather, as the economy recovers, income and spending increase, with a corresponding effect on tax revenue. Similarly, the major budget gaps that many states have faced in recent years were mainly caused by the Great Recession and its aftermath, which reduced economic activity.