Los Angeles Teacher Strike = More Debt

Deficits and more deficits have piled up for the Los Angeles Unified School District.  Eric Boehm has the story on reason.com.

Even as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) struggled with a $15 billion long-term deficit for retiree health care costs, the district was managing to operate with a small revenue surplus for the current fiscal year. That’s important, of course, because you can’t meaningfully address those long-term debts if you’re running a budget deficit—just ask the federal government how that works out.

The biggest fiscal change included in the new union contract is a 6 percent raise that teachers will receive over the next two years. The district also agreed to hire more school nurses and librarians, and to make an effort to reduce class sizes in junior and senior high schools. Together, the concessions will cost about $839 million over the next three years, according to the district’s financial report on the new contract.