By Ray Peterson
It is clear that the city of Santa Monica is experiencing a budget shortfall, especially with no new revenue sources put forth. Malibu, on the other hand, has made no such complaints, and it is presumed that that city is not experiencing such a dramatic budget deficit. How is it possible then that the SMMUSD and now CEPS are constantly claiming that they are in a budget crisis, and that the sole solution to the problem is to get more money from Santa Monica, and not equally from both cities who make up the school district, as would seem more fair? Why make extreme decisions to drastically change the charter of one city in the combined district, and not the other as well? Further, there are so many sources of funding for the schools — the 60 percent of property taxes, as well as the new parcel tax, the state mandated, full 40 percent of the general fund, the state lottery, numerous valuable income properties the school district owns, such as the Doubletree hotel, the huge corporate monetary gifts, the city of Santa Monica gifting on average $3 million a year, and private donations to name many, but certainly not all — demonstrate that there is abundant money in the district to meet any and all student needs. Added up, these (and the many other) sources of school funds are easily in the billions of dollars annually. Mismanaging the huge school funding is clearly evident. We need a new school superintendent and a new school board. Time to downsize. We should replace them with people who can do the same job for less.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.