San Francisco Unified School District students discuss their lesson.
Courtesy: San Francisco Unified School District
California school districts that are at risk of falling off the fiscal cliff are increasingly turning to early retirement incentives as a humane way to balance their budgets, but students could be the ones who lose.
Many California school districts are facing large budget deficits brought on by continuing declining student enrollment and lower cost-of-living increases in state funding, said Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. Districts also have expanded their staffing in recent years, using federal Covid-19 funding that has since gone away.
The state’s schools spend about 80% of their funding on staff salaries and benefits, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. This leaves districts to choose between unpopular…
