Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble - San Francisco Chronicle:
Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble
Well before the state had to bail out the Oakland Unified School District in 2003, fiscal experts warned school officials that their overspending was going to land them in big trouble. That didn’t stop the district from running up a $37 million deficit, resulting in a state takeover and record bailout that Oakland Unified is still repaying.
Nearly 14 years later, district officials are once again spending more than they have and acknowledge that urgent action is needed to stave off another fiscal crisis.
As he heads out the door for his new job at the head of the Washington, D.C., schools, Superintendent Antwan Wilson is expected to lay out a dire financial forecast this month showing Oakland’s school spending exceeding its revenue by $30 million next year.
Wilson insists that the situation is different from last decade, when California loaned the district $100 million and removed local control for six years. Back then, the school board was blindsided by an accounting error that hid the true size of Oakland’s deficit, Wilson said in an interview.
