LA School Board votes to slash school budget

[Hannah Bell]

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board voted 5-2 to approve a budget with $1.6 billion in cuts over a three-year period....The new budget will likely result in layoffs for 2,200 teachers and up to 2,000 school staff.

The school district has already implemented or is planning reductions in busing, the consolidation of schools and increasing class sizes, and cuts in books and other school materials. Art and music programs, as well as kindergarten teacher and nurse positions, will be slashed.

...The school board has already said that it will push for major work and wage concessions from teachers.

The board’s proceedings were often interrupted by shouts and catcalls from audience members, including many teachers. One called the board “predators” who were “ripping us off one more time.”

Outside the District building, a few hundred teachers, students and supporters assembled. Some carried the union’s trademark “LAUSD Shame on you!” signs.

Five tents for “campers” on hunger strike remained pitched on the sidewalk.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union called for members and supporters to “pack the board” in order to try to pressure the board members. This perspective has proven completely bankrupt, and again had no effect on Tuesday. Superintendent Ramon Cortines and other board members responded by insisting that they had no choice. “I have not seen any alternatives” despite “asking for recommendations,” claimed Cortines.

Union officials continued to frame the problem in terms of school board inefficiency and shortsightedness. Board member Tamar Galatzan suggested making “deep cuts in the bureaucracy,” echoing a common refrain from the UTLA...

The UTLA again called on the board to spend more federal stimulus funds this year. Board members countered that such a course would only make things worse in the next two years.

In fact, the union does not contest the need for drastic cuts. It only wants to have a say in how they are meted out. Other than vague protests and pleas to government officials, the union has put forward no serious proposals for dealing with the crisis.

The UTLA has not even made a serious demand on their Democratic Party allies in the California Legislature to raise taxes on the wealthy, that is, on those who benefited from the policies that led to the current economic carnage.

The Democrats, for their part, have made it clear that measures that question the financial prerogatives of the financial aristocracy are off limits.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/laus-j27.shtml