Half-Empty Schools, Bloated Payroll

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Los Angeles Unified School District has 70,000 fewer students than six years ago, yet it somehow added thousands of employees and now stands on the edge of insolvency.

Quick Take

Enrollment fell 16% since 2019 while staffing climbed 6.3%, state data show.
A state watchdog says the district risks losing control of its own budget.
The district’s own finance chief admits it still spends more than it takes in.
More than 6,000 jobs could be cut as schools sit nearly half-empty.
The teachers union says the warning ignores money the district could still get.

Enrollment Drops, Staffing Grows

Non-charter enrollment at Los Angeles Unified School District fell from 440,365 students in 2019-20 to 369,830 last year, a 16% drop. During that same stretch, the district’s full-time workforce grew by about 6.3%, climbing to more than 64,000 employees. Fewer kids walked through the doors, but the payroll kept growing anyway.

That mismatch sits at the center of a new fight over how America’s second-largest school district spends public money. The numbers alone don’t prove waste. They don’t show which jobs were added, where, or why. But they explain why state officials started asking hard questions about where the district’s money actually goes.

State Watchdog Warns of Insolvency

The California Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, a state agency that steps in when school districts hit financial trouble, placed Los Angeles Unified at high risk of insolvency. The September 30 report warned the district could lose control over its own budget decisions if it doesn’t act fast to fix its finances.

District Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi did not dispute the core problem. “Even with the full implementation of the Fiscal Stabilization Plan, we’re still spending more money than we’re bringing in,” she said. An intervention specialist with the state team added that salaries and benefits now eat up 90.8% of the district’s flexible general-fund budget, compared to a statewide average of 86%.

Where the Money and Students Have Gone

State reviewers say Los Angeles Unified needs to cut roughly $3.6 billion to stay financially viable, even after its existing stabilization plan takes full effect. The district’s response includes eliminating more than 6,000 positions over three years, a number large enough to touch nearly every school in the system.

Part of the pressure comes from empty buildings. The district’s schools can hold about 718,475 students but only around 353,065 showed up this year, roughly 49% of capacity. Reviewers also found the district has run a structural deficit since 2024-25, spending $1.5 billion to $2 billion more than it collects every year.

Teachers Union Pushes Back

United Teachers Los Angeles rejects the high-risk label. The union says the state’s scoring system punishes the district for raising educator pay and calls the evaluation framework anti-worker, arguing it ignores extra money state lawmakers could still send the district’s way.

Everything is not okay in LAUSD
And, somehow I suspect this trend is not unique to LAUSD: "CA's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team concluded this month that LAUSD faces a high risk of insolvency. Enrollment has plummeted while staffing and compensation costs have…

— Matt Frendewey (@mattfrendewey) October 26, 2026

The union points to specific funding streams critics allegedly overlook. Proposition 55 already raises nearly $15 billion a year for California schools by taxing the state’s top earners, money restricted to classrooms and salaries rather than overhead, and the union wants it made permanent before it expires in 2030.

Union leaders also argue the district is sitting on a $5.03 billion reserve it could tap for salaries and staffing, and estimate Los Angeles Unified’s share of Proposition 98 education funding could reach $1.2 billion over two years. The union has separately backed a statewide ballot measure taxing billionaires’ wealth to fund health care, framing the fight as one of priorities, not shortfalls.

A Statewide Pattern, Not Just a Local One

Los Angeles Unified’s troubles reflect a bigger shift across California. The district’s enrollment has fallen more than 40% since its early-2000s peak, and statewide, public schools have lost nearly half a million students over the past decade, with another 700,000 expected to leave over the next ten years as birth rates fall.

That trend leaves districts everywhere carrying fixed costs, like labor contracts, special education, and aging buildings, built for a much larger student population. Whether the fix is layoffs, school closures, or new tax revenue, the underlying question, fewer kids and rising costs, is one voters and parents across the state will keep confronting long after this budget fight ends.