The Los Angeles Unified School Board recently approved a $18.8 billion budget for the 2023–24 school year, which includes the last of its pandemic aid, and is beginning to prepare for operating without such funds.
Over the next two school years, the district will invest $4.2 billion—most of which comes from one-time emergency COVID-19 relief funding—into class-size reduction, social workers, counselors, psychologists, and professional development and increased compensation for employees, according to a June 20 district statement.
Though the estimated amount for the budget isn’t available for the 2024–25 school year, school officials have predicted that unassigned funds will drop from $113.7 million at the end of the 2023–24 school year to $10.6 million two years later.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has warned the district since he took office in February 2022 to expect a sharp financial transition when pandemic funds run dry.
“This year’s budget is responsible and values-based, enabling Los Angeles Unified to fund and support the critical priorities of this board, even as one-time federal funding sunsets and the state grapples with a massive shortfall of revenue,” Carvalho said in a June 20 statement.
Carvalho further stated in a press conference that the school district is prepared to manage the transition without staff layoffs—but warned that many employee positions may be shifted.
The superintendent said the district must cut more than 2,000 full-time positions—most of which were funded by state and federal COVID-19 aid—gradually, starting by eliminating unfilled positions in the district.
Additionally, some of the district’s staff members may have to move to different positions or change job locations, Carvalho said.
A spokesperson for the district wasn’t immediately available to provide more details on such changes.
The anticipated shifts come after the district’s teacher union—United Teachers of Los Angeles—recently negotiated a 21 percent bump in pay over the next two years for its 35,000 members.
Though he ultimately approved the contract, Carvalho has warned in the past against the union’s push to hire more workers, noting that the district is getting less funding and will have to stay “vigilant” in its spending in the coming years—in part due to enrollment decline, which is expected to drop by 30 percent over the next decade, according to the district.
A 1 percent decline in enrollment can result in a loss of approximately $55 million in funding for the upcoming school year, according to the district’s most recent budget report.
