LAUSD Plans to Fire 6,850 to Balance Budget

The Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District this week approved plans to layoff as many as 6,850 workers in the upcoming school year to close a $596 million budget gap.

LAUSD is sending layoff notices to 3,477 teachers and 3,373 administrators and support staff. That’s about 2,000 fewer teacher layoffs than the district expected a few weeks ago.

The recently passed federal stimulus package is helping to reduce the number of layoffs, and the district may avoid more layoffs once the state allocates its share of the extraordinary federal education aid payments. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included about $100 billion in education spending over the next two years, including $53.6 billion to help states maintain education funding during the recession.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines told the board the nation’s second-biggest school district would probably be able to use stimulus dollars to reduce the number of layoffs to about 5,400. That’s about half of the 11,000 layoffs the district faced before the stimulus package was passed. It is also trying to renegotiate labor contracts to reduce compensation and avoid some layoffs.

The currently proposed cuts would force LAUSD to increase class sizes to 24 from 20 for early grades with average class sizes for older students rising to more than 35.

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