by David Safier
I don't know if this is good, bad or indifferent, but it strikes me as curious. TUSD has stated it has a $17 million shortfall, which is why is has to close a bunch of schools and make serious cutbacks elsewhere. Yet it says it's spending $19 million more than it has on its court-mandated deseg efforts.
The majority of the plan will be covered by $64.3 million in desegregation money. The remaining $19 million will come from existing federal and maintenance and operations funds.
My question is, if $19 million can be transfered from "existing federal and maintenance and operations funds" to deseg programs and operations, couldn't a portion of those funds be used to fill that $17 million hole instead, making some of the school closings and draconian cuts unnecessary?
I support the deseg efforts, so I'm certainly not looking to deny them necessary funds, but I also support neighborhood schools and sufficient staff and services to give students a quality education. It's possible there's something I don't understand about how the funding works. But how can the District cry $17 million poor, then find a $19 million pot of cash to spend elsewhere?