To solve Sac City Unified financial crisis, teachers must also share in sacrifice

Sacramento City Unified School District faces a fiscal disaster that must be addressed immediately. The Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools reports structural budget deficits for the current and ongoing school years. By next fall, Sac City Unified will be insolvent and unable to pay its employees or other operating expenses.

The district must take action now to avoid a state takeover.

For many years, I served as a California state senator and the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. I was also both a teacher and a parent in Sac City Unified, and I’m now a volunteer in our local high schools. I believe l have both a state and local perspective about our schools worth sharing.

Why is this financial crisis occurring only in Sac City Unified and not in other local districts? A key answer lies in health care costs for teachers. Sac City Unified pays almost $34,000 per teacher for family benefits, while neighboring districts pay a lot less. For example, Elk Grove pays approximately $16,000 for the same benefits, less than half the costs of Sac City Unified.

This issue is at the heart of findings from independent fiscal budget analysts who say that Sac City Unified spends more than 91 cents out of every dollar on benefits and salaries, leaving only nine cents to support fixed costs and invest in things like arts, summer school and elementary school sports. Other districts provide 50 percent more funding for such activities because their proportional benefits and salaries are so much lower.

High-functioning districts faced with unsustainable spending bring together all stakeholders to work out difficult but necessary solutions. Not so in Sac City Unified. Instead, the norm until recently has been to cast blame and kick problems down the road, resulting in the current crisis.

However, the appointment of a new superintendent with strong backing from the board has led to a concerted effort to engage all stakeholders in finding real budget solutions. As a result, for the first time ever, four out of the five unions in Sac City Unified representing custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and principals have joined with management and pledged to solve the budget crisis through shared sacrifices.

Unfortunately, the fifth union, the Sacramento City Teachers Association – currently working under a contract negotiated last year for a 7.5 percent raise over three years – is the only holdout and has stymied efforts to change labor-management relations. SCTA has proposed drastic cuts to administration as one major solution to the district’s budget problems, ignoring a Sacramento County Office of Education finding that this proposal would result in limited savings. In addition, state data has documented that Sac City Unified’s administrative costs average 25 percent less than similarly-sized local districts.

SCTA has also attacked the integrity of Jorge Aguilar, the district superintendent, by calling for an unprecedented state investigation of Mr. Aguilar. An outstanding educator with more than 20 years of experience, Aguilar has an especially strong track record of successfully meeting the needs of our most disadvantaged students. SCTA’s cheap shot against a good man is shameful, and nothing more than a diversionary tactic.

Criticizing a teacher’s union is not something I relish. As a former teacher, legislator and lifelong Democrat, I have always supported collective bargaining that gives teachers an equal voice in decisions concerning compensation and working conditions decisions. But collective bargaining can be abused. The other Sac City Unified unions realize the current process is not working.

What needs to be done now in Sac City Unified? All of us – educators, parents, elected officials, business leaders and civil rights groups – must demand that everyone come together to agree upon shared sacrifice. The time for political theater has ended. Devastating layoffs, bankruptcy and a state takeover would be disastrous for our children, our teachers and our city. Let’s stop wasting time, before it’s too late.

This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 12:01 AM.