San Diego County Schools Superintendent Randy Ward says school districts from Poway to Sweetwater are struggling to balance their budgets to meet a state-mandated deadline. That deadline is July 1st.
Ward is like the school budget cop for San Diego County, making sure all districts submit their budgets on-time and stay in the black.
Ward says the current situation is making him relive some tough memories of when he was appointed the state's caretaker of two bankrupt school districts in California.
“All of us feel like we’re in this bankruptcy situation,” Ward said. “We have to make such drastic cuts, that it brings me back to the days of Compton and Oakland, where you walked into a school district and immediately had to make drastic cuts that hurt children.”
Ward says not one district in the county is faring well because proposed state budget cuts to education keep changing. So far, the majority of county school districts have decided to get rid of teachers, boost class sizes and cutback on school transportation. But even that falls short.
