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LAUSD’s insane deal for $1.2 billion in raises

The Los Angeles Unified School District narrowly avoided a strike that could have shuttered schools for nearly 400,000 students. That is the good news. 

The bad news is that the price of avoiding that disruption appears to be labor deals costing the district nearly $1.2 billion annually.According to news reports, the final tentative agreement, reached with SEIU Local 99 in the early morning hours, includes:

A 24 percent pay increase over three years for support staff, including custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, aides, gardeners, and tech support personnel. 

An average pay increase of 13.86 percent over two years for United Teachers Los Angeles, including an immediate jump in starting teacher pay to $77,000 from $68,965. 

An 11.65 percent increase over two years for Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, with an opportunity to bargain for an additional raise in the final year of a three-year contract.

No serious observer should pretend these are modest adjustments. 

They are substantial permanent obligations layered onto a district already struggling to live within its means. 

The immediate political crisis may have been avoided. The underlying fiscal crisis was not. In fact, it was almost certainly made worse.What makes this settlement difficult to defend is the condition of the institution that agreed to it. 

LAUSD is already confronting structural deficits, declining enrollment, depleted reserves, and legal liabilities.LAUSD operates with an annual budget of roughly $18.8 billion, yet it faces multibillion-dollar structural deficits in the years ahead. It has been drawing down reserves that once approached $5 billion. 

Enrollment has fallen sharply, and the........

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