SCUSD No Longer Insolvent ? They Found the Money ??

How is it that SCUSD is no longer insolvent ? 

 Perhaps it is because the inappropriately took the money from the LCFF directed to English Language Learners and used it to cover their budget shortfall.

 

As we described to the Board  each year for the last 4 yearsl

 

https://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2020/06/ab-1835-passes-assembly-assists-english.html

 

 

Less than one month after the Sacramento City Unified School District announced it will run out of cash in Feb. 2021, citing a $40 million deficit, both the district and an independent fiscal adviser said this week that the district serving more than 40,000 students likely won’t go insolvent that soon.

Instead, the financially distressed district and FCMAT, the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, said the district is closer to having a $20 million surplus, due to savings from the coronavirus pandemic and overbudgeting on the district’s part.

The district is still in trouble down the road and will likely go insolvent. Mike Fine, chief executive officer at FCMAT, said it’s not a matter of if, but when.

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Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article245805965.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

  

Financial crisis hurts schools, was not caused by pensions

Fiscal Crisis in States Will Last Beyond Slump, Report Warns  N.Y. Times.

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH and MICHAEL COOPER

WASHINGTON — The fiscal crisis for states will persist long after the economy rebounds as states confront financial problems that include rising health care costs, underfunded pensions, ignored infrastructure needs, eroding revenues and expected federal budget cuts, according to a report issued here Tuesday by a task force of respected budget experts.

The severity of the long-term problems facing states is often masked by lax state budget laws and opaque accounting practices, according to the report, an independent analysis of six states released by a group calling itself the State Budget Crisis Task Force. The report said that the financial collapse of 2008, which caused the most serious fiscal crisis for states since the Great Depression, exposed a number of deep-set financial challenges that will grow worse if no action is taken by national policy makers.

“The ability of the states to meet their obligations to public employees, to creditors and most critically to the education and well-being of their citizens is threatened,” warned the two chairmen of the task force, Richard Ravitch, the former lieutenant governor of New York, and Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Editors insert. (Duane Campbell)

 The  looting produced our current economic crisis, crashed the world economy, and caused the massive cutbacks we presently suffer in schools, in public pensions, in employment of police, fire, the bankrupting of cities and the cuts to health care and the social safety net.

Did police, fire fighters, nurses, teachers cause this crisis.  No.

Did pensioners cause this crisis ? No. Government should get the money from those who caused the crisis-  the bankers and finance capital through a financial transaction tax.  We should use such a tax rather than giving the banks bail outs.  And, stop scape goating pensioners.

What happened to pensions ? Why is the San Jose pension system in crisis? They have built a system based upon a projected  7.5% investment growth.

They are achieving a 1.5% growth. Why?  Because of the economic crisis.  (STRS, etc.)  It was the economic crisis, the looting of the economy.  It was not the workers.  

The American People Are Angry- Sanders

188 California School districts in financial trouble

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Reports Record
Number of School Districts in Financial Jeopardy

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson warned today that 2.6 million California children now attend schools in districts that are in financial jeopardy—the highest number of financially troubled districts in state history.

"This is the kind of record no one wants to set. Across California, parents, teachers, and administrators are increasingly wondering how to keep their schools' lights on, their bills paid, and their doors open," Torlakson said. "The deep cuts this budget crisis has forced—and the uncertainties about what lies ahead—are taking an unprecedented and unacceptable toll on our schools."

The state's Second Interim Status Report for 2011-12 also shows a record-high 188 local educational agencies (LEAs) are either in negative or qualified financial status. That's up 61 LEAs from the First Interim Status Report for 2011-12 issued in February, and up 45 from the Second Interim Report for 2010-11 issued a year ago.

The Sacramento Bee, on the other hand, thinks that the problem is teacher quality. There is little evidence to support the Bee's position.

What is happening in Greece: Financial Crisis ?

Financial Crisis, Markets and Democracy, Climate Justice: SI Council in Costa Rica

 

23-24 JANUARY 2012

Speech by George Papandreou, President of PASOK and President of the Socialist International

at the Council meeting of the Socialist International, San José, 23 January 2012

It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today, in San Jose, Costa Rica. It is a special honor for the Socialist International to have with us her Excellency the President of Costa Rica Ms. Laura Chinchilla. As Costa Rica's first woman President she is a symbol of women empowerment in Central America and beyond. We are looking forward to her remarks. 

Dear friends, dear comrades,

I often hear a question, even a complaint: Is our movement relevant to today's problems? Here in Central and Latin America you know very well we are relevant. It is not only the fact that we have become a strong political force for change and progress but we have shown that progressive governance does matter.

This region has experienced - as we in Greece are experiencing - deep economic crises. The rule of the IMF, the mistrust of the financial system, the austerity of the measures. Yet you know. You know more than anyone else that both Latin and Central America are rich areas. Rich with resources, rich with human capital. But these resources have often been mismanaged, squandered, usurped by the few and powerful, by dependencies and interventions.

That is why these crises are not primarily financial but they are political. They are crises because of the lack of democratic governance, because of the inequalities, because of the lack of opportunities, the lack of transparency, corruption, the clientilist and authoritarian regimes. Regimes under which our citizens were marginalized or even oppressed.

Robert Reich (The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For)

Robert Reich (The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For)

Throw the bankers in jail !

A problem with the Country Wide the WaMU settlements.

We have to consider the externalities of the fraud.  While a $337 million dollar fine may be sufficient for the individuals defrauded by Country Wide, the cost to the nation and the state was much greater.  These could be called externalities or collateral damage.  And the costs are truly astronomic. See posts below.

Remember what caused this  crisis – it wasn’t the government. First came the housing bubble and the selling of near fraudulent home mortgages by corporations such as Country Wide and WaMU– thus the settlements.  To make a profit major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown.  

 Now we have cuts in parks,  in universities, in nurses, libraries.  School children did not create this crisis. 
The major bankers, finance capitalists in the U.S. robbed the bank last year  – and the federal treasury.  They took hundreds of billions of dollars  – Goldman Sachs alone took $10 Billion.  For example,  Ken Lewis of Bank of America received an $ 81 million dollar pension.  They have not even been punished.  One thing we should do is arrest the top 100 executives and CEO’s of these companies, give them a fair trial, and throw them in jail.  Until we arrest some people there will be no real changes.

Note:  House Concurrent Resolution  85. Dec. 2011.

Further budget cuts are coming - Severe

Additional state budget cuts to higher education, k-12, and other services are predicted for this week.
They are called Trigger Cuts.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/12/4116082/californias-financial-forecast.html

Jeffrey Sachs- Thats not a free market

Will an Incompetent European Central Bank be Allowed to Wreck the World Economy?

Will an Incompetent European Central Bank be Allowed to Wreck the World Economy?

Dean Baker.

Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion

 Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Betty Liu reports on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.