Short-changed by state, school districts borrow and students lose

09-20-2011

By Will Carless/Voice of San Diego

The last time Phil Stover saw a state government writing IOUs to schools was back in 2004. That was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Faced with a cash shortfall after the state was hit by four devastating hurricanes — Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne — Florida lawmakers took that unprecedented step. The IOUs lasted a couple of months, Stover said. Once the state caught up on its finances, it made school districts whole again. But in San Diego, where Stover now works as deputy superintendent of business at San Diego Unified School District, getting short-changed by the state has become a way of life. For years now, the state has been getting further and further behind on its payments of tax revenues to schools. Faced with a constant shortfall in cash, Sacramento has steadily increased the amount it has to write in IOUs to school districts and is constantly behind by several months in delivering cash to schools. (more...)

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Short-changed by state, school districts borrow and students lose

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