Falling Enrollment Jeopardizes LAUSD Budget
Charter schools grow but the trend is bad news for district funding
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LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 14: Teachers and supporters demonstrate while the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meets to discuss a proposal to eliminate thousands of jobs in hopes of closing a $718 million budget gap April 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. The jobs of 1,996 elementary school teachers have been spared from the budget-cutting axe but about 6,000 employees, including more than 1,600 teachers, face pending layoffs. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Parents and students are making an exodus from traditional schools at L.A. unified spelling trouble for the school district's already battered budget.
Enrollment fell about 3% to 617,798 students while the number of students at charters schools grew nearly 19%, to 60,643 students, according to the LA Times.
Since charter schools are funded independently of LAUSD and do not hire district staff, their growth does not help the district's financial outlook. Even if the charter students are added in, district enrollment overall is down 1.4% from last year, according to the Times.
The district has already been reeling under the state financial crisis and the new numbers signal more rough times ahead for the nation's second-largest school system. Fewer students means less funding for teachers forcing the district to make even more unpopular layoffs and budget cuts.
"If we have fewer students ... then we need fewer staff," Vivian Ekchian, LAUSD's head of human resources, told the Daily News.
