The good news: Sacramento City schools might not go broke after all. Just make a deal.
Sacramento is actually closer to saving its public school system than it has been in years.
For this unexpected development, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty deserves a great deal of credit. Long known as a close friend to the state teachers union – he takes a lot of money from them – it was McCarty who asked state auditor Elaine Howle to analyze why the Sacramento City Unified School District was in economic distress.
I have to admit that I thought this was a stunt. I thought that the district had already been audited enough and that Howle shedding any light on a district teetering on the verge of insolvency was unlikely.
When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And I was. I owe McCarty and Howle an apology.
Her audit, released in December, offers a clear road map for how SCUSD got in over its head on teacher pay and pension obligations over the years.
In the audit, Howle avoided going down the rabbit hole of counter allegations hurled back and forth between SCUSD and the Sacramento City Teachers Association – a labor fight that for too long has dominated news stories that should have been focused on the 41,000 school kids at Sac City.
These kids are our future workforce, our future leaders, and if we in Sacramento are really as progressive as we claim to be, than we’ll put their interests over those of adults every time.
I’ve continued to write about this issue because of what it says about us in Sacramento. More than half of SCUSD’s school kids are African American and Latino. If we fail them, then we don’t really believe in equity as say we do. We don’t really believe in diversity. We don’t really believe in public education.
In her own way, Howle gave a shout-out to diversity, equity and public education by spreading blame for district financial woes between SCUSD administrators and union leaders. At Thursday night’s SCUSD school board meeting, Howle will stand before administrators, union leaders and parents while giving a deep dive on her findings.
As I wrote last December: “According to Howle’s audit, SCUSD has the highest average salary of CONTINUE READING: Sacramento City Schools can see a way to financial solvency | The Sacramento Bee