High pay, low test scores: Is California’s largest school district too big to fail?

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The term “too big to fail” entered the popular lexicon a decade ago when the federal government rescued huge banking corporations that were collapsing due to rampant greed and managerial incompetence.

The phrase might be applied today, with a question mark, to the state’s largest – and nation’s second largest – school district, Los Angeles Unified, whose leaders seem to assume that no matter how irresponsibly they act, the state will rescue them.

The district’s enrollment is declining, mandatory payments into employee pension systems are rising sharply to shore up their shaky finances, and LA Unified habitually overspends revenues by caving in to union demands for hefty salary increases.

LAUSD and other K-12 districts have recently seen a 50 percent increase in per-pupil financing from taxpayers, much more flexibility to spend special-purpose money, and extra aid to raise academic achievement of poor and/or English-learner students.

However, the district’s enrollment is declining, mandatory payments into employee pension systems are rising sharply to shore up their shaky finances, and LA Unified habitually overspends revenues by caving in to union demands for hefty salary increases.

The failure of government schools in bold relief.