EDITORIAL A LEAP WITHOUT A LOOK NEW SCHOOL BOARD RECKLESSLY COMMITTED TO EXPANDED BENEFITS.WE have a new Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. board, which, unlike its predecessors, is supposed to be forward-thinking. It's not supposed to be beholden be·hold·en adj. Owing something, such as gratitude, to another; indebted. [Middle English biholden, past participle of biholden, to observe; see behold. to union or other interests. But in one of its first major decisions, the new school board greatly resembles the old one. Last Thursday, the board approved -- by 5-2 vote -- a measure that increases the number of hours some 2,352 cafeteria workers work each day from three to four. Ostensibly os·ten·si·ble adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. , this will make lunches healthier -- a claim no one substantiates, but which everyone repeats, because it sounds better than the truth. And the truth is that the board passed the measure to give an expensive perk perk 1 v. perked, perk·ing, perks v.intr. 1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk. 2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. to a well-connected union. When cafeteria workers put in four hours a day, they become "full-time" employees, thus qualifying for full health benefits. Paying for those benefits won't be easy. This decision will cost the district $105 million over the next three years. Superintendent David Brewer This article is about the businessman and Lord Mayor of London; for the American jurist, see David Josiah Brewer Sir David Brewer CMG (born 1940) was Lord Mayor of London between 2005 and 2006. III now has to find the money to cover a massive expense that was never budgeted. The precedent will also no doubt spur other LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) unions to demand full-time benefits for their part-time workers. There are 18,000 part-timers laboring in the LAUSD. Providing full health care for all of them would cost the district -- which can't even swing adequate music and art classes -- an additional quarter-billion dollars (and climbing) a year. What's worse, this huge expansion of benefits didn't even come at the bargaining table, with the usual give-and-take of negotiations. This is all a give to the unions on the part of the schools, with taxpayers taking nothing in return. Plus, the unions now know they don't need to negotiate for new perks perk 1 v. perked, perk·ing, perks v.intr. 1. To stick up or jut out: dogs' ears that perk. 2. To carry oneself in a lively and jaunty manner. ; they can just finagle from the politicians. Providing health care is a worthy goal, but so is providing solid education and smart accounting. The new school board has recklessly leaped without looking -- the sort of thing it wasn't supposed to do. |
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