KPCC reports that state officials have ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to spend hundreds of millions of more dollars on its highest-needs students.
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“They’re really denying new and improved services to high needs students across the district,” said John Affeldt, an attorney with the nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization Public Advocates. He served alongside the ACLU of Southern California as co-counsel for the complainants.
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But Affeldt said the district has backed itself into a corner by failing to contain costs in other ways, saying they’ve agreed to increase staff salaries and benefits.
“They’ve gotten themselves into a corner where they’re trying to say, ‘We have to rob Peter to pay Paul and we don’t have the money for additional services for these high-needs students, so we should just be allowed to violate the law and not provide the additional services for high needs students.’”
“They’ve got other decisions,” Affeldt added, “they need to face reality about.”
