Celeste Fremon, who teaches in the Literary Journalism program at UC Irvine and blogs at Witness LA, has written a post about how the Los Angeles Unified School District is cutting $718 million out of its budget. Ouch.Now I know that the LAUSD is a big beast of a school district but Fremon's post and the LA Times article she cites have lessons for our own OUSD situation.
For example, the LAUSD has pinkslipped some 4700 teachers but as the Times and Fremon point out, an internal audit reveals some interesting expenditures. Case in point, some $17 million spent on unqualified, unecessary consultants.
To check it out, click here.
And then, somebody, let's start looking at OUSD expenditures.
As Fremon writes, "Perhaps this is the sort of thing that some nice, smart group of investigative journalism students ought to be looking at a little more closely. Hint, hint."
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(Stay tuned for an update on last night's meeting. Thanks to all who turned out. Needless to say, the struggle continues. Keep those cards and letters and emails coming, folks.)
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Has the OUSD done a internal audit lately? Who would know?
ReplyDeleteHow much money does the OUSD shell out for consultants and lawyers?
This kind of info will be good to have when any of them run for office again.
Can you imagine what would happen if we found out that the trustees spent more money on lawyers and consultants than they would have to spend to keep Silverado open?
Where are those investigative reporters?
Has anyone compared the salaries of administrators in the OUSD, including the super, - with other districts?
ReplyDeleteThe number of administrators, VPS, etc?
The most recent audit (2008) is available online - someone should comb through it and see what's there. In the context of this year's crisis it may be enlightening.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/audit/audit_report_0708.pdf