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A STUDENT’S VOICE - Months of warnings were ignored. Political promises replaced fiscal responsibility. Now the nation's second-largest school district is on the brink of state intervention.
Every warning was ignored. Every opportunity to change course was squandered. Now the Los Angeles Unified School District the nation's second-largest school district has been given 45 days to prove it can responsibly manage its finances or risk losing control of its budget to outside fiscal overseers. It is an extraordinary humiliation, but one that is entirely self-inflicted.
The Los Angeles County Office of Education has concluded that LAUSD shows "severe" signs of fiscal distress and could be $231 million short of making payroll by November 2027. A county fiscal expert has already been assigned to monitor the district. If LAUSD fails to satisfy county officials, a fiscal adviser could block school board spending decisions. Ultimately, a state bailout could strip the elected board of much of its financial authority.
None of this happened overnight. In April, after tentative labor agreements were announced, I warned that LAUSD was buying labor peace with money it simply did not have. In June, before those agreements were formally approved, county officials issued the same warning: the contracts were financially unsustainable. The school board approved them anyway. Within weeks, those warnings became official findings.
The financial consequences are staggering. The contracts will add approximately $1.13 billion in new spending this school year, rising to $1.44 billion by 2027-28. They include a 24% raise over three years for SEIU support staff, nearly 14% over two years for teachers, and almost 12% over two years for administrators. The board also abandoned planned cost reductions and overruled its chief financial officer by pulling $175 million from a retiree health trust fund simply to make the budget appear balanced.
County officials responded with unusually blunt language, warning that these decisions further "erode confidence" in LAUSD's financial management. In plain English, the county no longer trusts the school board to manage taxpayer dollars responsibly. Yet district leaders insist there is no crisis, while union leaders continue betting Sacramento will provide more money.
Hope is not a financial strategy. Enrollment has been declining for years, federal COVID relief funds were always temporary, and reserves were shrinking while structural deficits continued to grow. District leaders knew every one of these facts, yet they approved massive permanent spending commitments anyway even while discussing more than 1,000 layoffs, unpaid furloughs, and thousands of additional job cuts over the next three years. That isn't optimism. It's fiscal malpractice.
The reason is difficult to ignore. United Teachers Los Angeles and other unions recruit, endorse, finance, and help elect school board members. Those same officials then negotiate and vote on contracts backed by the organizations that helped put them in office. That is not meaningful arms-length bargaining; it is a political system where allies negotiate with one another while taxpayers absorb the cost.
Meanwhile, students continue paying the price. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, LAUSD spent approximately $25,631 per student in fiscal year 2024 among the highest spending levels of America's 100 largest school districts. Yet only 46.5% of students met state standards in English, 36.8% met standards in math, and just 27.3% reached proficiency in science. LAUSD isn't suffering from a lack of money it's suffering from a lack of accountability. Throwing more taxpayer dollars at a broken system without demanding better academic outcomes is not leadership. It's surrender.
Now the bill has come due. The inevitable cuts will not primarily affect the politicians who approved these contracts or the special interests that demanded them. They will fall on classrooms, student programs, and the children who depend on them. The adults responsible will hold press conferences, blame Sacramento, blame Washington, or find someone else to blame.
History will remember something much simpler: they were warned, they ignored the warnings, and they approved the spending anyway. Once again, the children not the adults who created this crisis will pay the price.
(Shoshannah Kalaydjian is a young Jewish student who writes about education, identity, and the challenges facing the next generation. Growing up in today’s climate, she has witnessed firsthand how rising antisemitism affects young people in classrooms and on college campuses. She is committed to sharing the perspectives of Jewish youth, amplifying student voices, and encouraging leaders to create safer, more inclusive environments for all students.)
