Inglewood Unified School District: The Canary in the Coal Mine - Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | Black News
Inglewood Unified School District: The Canary in the Coal Mine
According to the California Education Code, all California school districts will have to submit a first interim budget report by December 15.
This report compares the school district’s ongoing fiscal condition to what was projected in the budget they submitted in July. The report includes the latest student enrollment and attendance figures, data on staffing, year-to-date accounting, and projections of expenditures and cash flow.
Through this review, districts assess whether they will be able to meet their obligations and are required to self-certify whether their fiscal condition is positive, qualified, or negative (i.e., will meet, may not meet, or will not be solvent over the next three years).
Most schools districts will certify that they will meet their financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years, but there are a growing number of districts that will assign themselves qualified or negative certifications.
Large school districts, based on their July budgets, that may be on the list of qualified and negative include Los Angeles Unified, Sacramento City Unified, Sweetwater Union, and Oakland Unified.
Districts with negative and qualified certifications must come to terms with the fact that unless they find new revenue sources or better control their expenditures they will have to request a state loan to avoid fiscal insolvency.
According to Assembly Bill 1200, called the Eastin Act, the state of California is required to maintain the financial soundness of public school districts. Since 1991, when the bill passed, nine districts have been given emergency loans. Four are still repaying loans they accepted.
Under AB 1200, a district secures a state loan through Legislative action. A state-appointed administrator takes over, the superintendent is fired, and the board of education becomes an advisory body. All decisions about the district’s operational priorities are taken away from the local level until the state loan is paid in full.
