Oops! The sea of red ink engulfing the Los Angeles Unified School District budget is turning into an ocean of scarlet.
The district was expecting to face a $470 million dollar deficit next year. But this is now ballooning into a potentially $670 million dollar shortfall.
District officials discovered this after reading the fine print in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget.
The Governor who had pledged to spare education, apparently wants to chop another $200 million dollars from the LAUSD.
The district made the discovery just six weeks before it must, by state law, begin sending out pink slips to teachers and administrators it plans to lay off next year.
The governor's budget plan keeps education funding at the same level as last year, but it fails to restore cuts that were supposed to be restored.
The district had already okayed its own two year spending plan --one that called for the elimination of 5,000 jobs --including 1,400 teachers.
This plan also slashed elementary arts and music programs and cut back on school nurses, school police and aides.
These cuts are in addition to the 2,800 teaching positions and 2,800 non-teaching positions eliminated last year.
The district is asking its unions to agree to unpaid furlough days to save money, but the head of the teachers' union says United Teachers Los Angeles will not agree to furloughs or pay cuts until the district proves it has made it has cut everywhere it can.
