Our schools are facing a funding crisis. A combination of a huge decrease in tax revenue and declining enrollment is going to hit many school districts hard, including San Diego Unified.
With a $70 million deficit projected for the SDUSD hard decisions will need to be made. Media reports give us good background on the revenue side of the problem, but anyone who has balanced a budget knows to look at both money in and out. Rarely does any reporting discuss spending, as if that has nothing to do with the problem.
But spending is the only controllable lever our schools have to pull. A district and board can’t pick dollars off the money tree but they can impact how their dollars are spent.
California Department of Education data shows that in 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) average SDUSD spending per student was $14,819. In 2022 that had increased to $20,107. That’s a growth rate of 6% annually — faster than inflation, which rose at less than 5% per year during the same period.
Total spending is also up significantly, from $1.45 billion in 2019 to $1.73 billion in 2022. If SDUSD had just kept spending growth to the rate of inflation, the total would be $61 million lower. Then the projected $70 million deficit would just be a $9 million shortfall and much more manageable.
Where Is the Money Going?
Last spring SDUSD was negotiating with its different unions, which were demanding a bonus raise of 18% over two years. In June the district came to agreement on 15% over those two years.
In 2022, according to SDUSD’s own payroll records (obtained by public record request and published by Transparent California), the median total pay of a full-time certificated employee was $102,024. Median total for administrative employees (eligible for the same raise via the “me too” clause) was $152,619. Adding the approved raise means a likely increase to about $117,000 and $176,000 respectively by end of next year. Teachers aren’t poorly paid.
The required disclosure provided to the San Diego County Office of Education indicated that if approved the bonus agreement would increase spending by $122.4 million in the current year. At the same meeting during which board members approved this bonus raise they also heard a presentation projecting $90 million in deficit spending in the future.
The disclosure asks what specific cuts would be need to be. Nothing is given. SDCOE’s evaluation called for reductions of $129 million. The district apparently didn’t feel like telling the board — or parents — what they were going to cut to fund the pay increases.
We all know academic performance has been miserable lately but no explanation was given for how more money for adults might help fix that. There is plenty of data showing increasing the pay of adults improves their bank accounts, but no data showing that improves education.
One might think this would trigger a spirited discussion during the meeting as board members — elected to be responsible for the education of our kids — question how more money for adults will improve the education of our children. Perhaps the board might even ask for data.
But that didn’t happen. If you watch the video of the board meeting, you see exactly 75 seconds of discussion. Not one board member asked how this would improve education, or what would be cut, prior to the vote.
Yes, revenue is going to be a problem, but the only way to address it is in decisions on spending. And it’s clear the SDUSD board does not consider the education of kids its first priority. Even when they know that giving well-paid adults more money will result in a need to cut services to kids, they approve with zero discussion.
SDUSD is not unique. This same process happens repeatedly in most districts, yet rarely do we see board members interested weighing the desire of employees for larger paychecks versus children’s educational needs.
It’s hard to imagine parents are OK with this, but where are they during these discussions? And where are they during school board elections?
Todd Maddison is a co-founder of the Parent Association and San Diego Schools parent advocacy groups, and the director of research for the Transparent California government watchdog website.
