California Financial Fiasco

California’s $45 Billion Meltdown: LAUSD on the Brink | The Morning Report with Willie Lawson
In today’s explosive Morning Report, Willie Lawson exposes the fiscal time bomb ticking beneath California’s shiny surface—and why the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) may be ground zero when it goes off. Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democrat supermajority in Sacramento have driven the state into a staggering $45 billion deficit, blowing through a historic surplus with reckless spending, pandemic windfalls, and permanent program expansions. From climate wish lists to free health care for illegal immigrants, they’ve governed like the money would never run out. But it has. Zooming in on LAUSD, the largest school district in the state—and the second-largest in the nation—Willie breaks down how district leaders “got drunk” on $5+ billion in COVID relief, used it to hire thousands of permanent staff, and are now scrambling to avoid layoffs by draining reserves and delaying cuts. The result? A nearly $3 billion deficit this year alone. Meanwhile, union demands grow louder, activist programs expand, and California’s leaders remain silent as schools edge toward collapse. This isn’t just about bad math—it’s about bad priorities, broken leadership, and a refusal to face financial reality. 🔥 Don’t miss this deep-dive into how progressive policies are setting fire to public education—and what taxpayers need to know before the next election. 📲 Subscribe now to FightBack Media on YouTube
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good morning America. Today's story is about what happens when
the Golden State acts like the gravy train is never
going to run out, and now the Czechs are bouncing.
We're starting big California's financial free fall and drilling down
to what may become the epicenter of public education's next crisis.

(00:25):
Because this is happening everywhere. We're just gonna pick on
LA for a while because well, they're an easy target.
Let's pull back the curtain. Well, California is staring down

(00:56):
the barrel of a forty five million dollars budget deficits,
a forty five billion with a beat budget deficit according
to reviined projection from Governor Gaven Newsom's office, his own
finance department. And that's how I type out that's a

(01:16):
billion with a bee. Why. There's a few reasons. First
of all, there was an over reliance on capital gains
taxis from the uber wealthy money that dried up with
tech slowdowns and market volatility skyrocketing, spending on everything from
green energy projects to illegal immigrant and services. COVID relief

(01:41):
dollars are gone. Remember COVID relief dollars, because that's going
to be a very important thing moving on, but the
spending habits stuck around like a bad addiction. And here's
the kicker. Instead of tightening the belt, California's leaders keep
expanding programs and locking in permanent costs like pay raises,

(02:04):
new bureaucracies, and equity initiatives. That sounds great in theory,
but burn money in practice. And now they're pulling out
the duct tape. Okay, lit, find kid ourselves. This isn't

(02:24):
just a Los Angeles story. It's a statewide meltdown. And
the fire started in Sacramento. California is supposed to be
the fifth largest economy in the world, but unfortunately it's
under a one party rule of Governor Gavin Newsom and
a supermajority of Democrat legislatures. The state's finances have turned

(02:50):
into a progressive ponting scheme. They spent in the pandemic
flush like it would never end. Ninety seven billion dollars
in surplus gone in two years, in two years, in
two years. Instead of building sustainable programs, they rolled out

(03:12):
massive one time equity grants, climate projects, stimulus checks, universal
free lunch, and build ill illions built allions in new
education programs, all without long term funding sources. They passed

(03:35):
record budgets north of three one hundred billion dollars, voted
with temporary expansions that became permanent, and now with the
tax revenue down, population fleeing. I was gonna tall like

(03:57):
population freeing, like it was on fire, but it kind
of was, and capital gains vanishing. They're acting shocked that
the math isn't mathing anymore. So what's the response from
the top. Governor Newsom's latest revised budget still promises free

(04:19):
health care for legal immigrants. How it keeps climate spending
intact and favors and protects favorite social programs while slashing
prison funding, delaying school payments, and robbing dedicated funds like

(04:40):
their personal piggy banks and the legislature. They're too busy
debating reparations and banning plastic bags to ask why school
districts are teetering on collapse. This isn't just poor planning,
it's deliberate mismas management, and of course, districts like the

(05:03):
Los Angeles Unified School District, already weighed down by declining enrollment,
high union costs, and unsustainable COVID era hires are left
holding the bag. And yes, the Los Angeles Unified School
District is a mess, but that mess was poured out

(05:25):
on the Governor's office, bottled in legislature and delivered statewide
with a blue ribbon that reads equity first, accountability Never.
Let's not forget. LAUSD received more than five billion dollars

(05:46):
in COVID relief, and unlike other districts, but like some,
it even scored well, actually they nobody yet this with them.
They scored a five hundred million dollars or bonus from
the BIDED administration to cover COVID testing, just testing. So

(06:07):
what happened? They hired thousands of permanent staff, aids, counselors,
mental health workers on temporary COVID dollars. Were they thinking
that this planey was going to last? Were they hoping
that COVID was going to last forever? This is on

(06:27):
makes sense now that some of these things never went away,
the masking, the distancing, all this and all the jab thing.
They never wanted that to go away because if that
had gone away, the money would have gone away. Right,
But now those dollars are bomb because COVID is over right,
But the employees that they hired during that time are

(06:50):
still on the payroll. They launched equity programs, boosted after
school services, and expanded support centers. And I think this
was all sort of in a a hope to get
people to come back to the public schools. Noble causes maybe,
but again, no permanent funding to sustained them. And as

(07:15):
of January twenty twenty five, every last federal earlief dollar
must be spent or forfeited. There are going to be
no more extensions, so that money is gone, you hear
me gone now. The LA Unified School District school Board

(07:37):
just approved what they call a fiscal stabilization plan translation,
kick the can, hope for a miracle, pray that nobody notices.
Here's what they're doing. They're going to delay thirty million
dollars in staffing cuts. They were supposed to cut sixty million,

(08:02):
but they only went halfway. Postponing contributions to retiree healthcare funds.
That frees up two hundred and forty five million dollars. Again,
but that's robbing Peter to pay Paul. Planning to close
schools and strength district offices in the years ahead, not

(08:26):
this year, not this coming school year. But in the
years ahead, these aren't guarantees, they're just plans. So instead
of solving the crisis, they're managing the optics. There is
no way to pretend that politics aren't driving the bus

(08:46):
off the cliff. Unions are already demanding more races, citing
four point eight billion dollars in reserves has proved the
district can afford it. So this so the unions want
the reserve money. They want to cook the goose that

(09:07):
lays the golden egg, which is typical union behavior. They
want to cook the goose eat it now. Instead of
waiting waiting for it to produce eggs, they want to
eat it now. Activist groups are pressuring the board to

(09:27):
maintain and maybe even expand spending on targeted initiatives. One
of them is the Black Student Achievement Plan, got a
one time fifty million dollar boost, bringing it to one
hundred and seventy five million dollars. Program for immigrant student
centers received four to five million dollar increase. Again, no

(09:52):
one's asking if the math is mathing. They're only asking
if the narrative plays well in the next school board election. Now,
let's get there next year. May look okay on paper.
Why because they're draining the reserves to patch the hole.

(10:13):
But by twenty to twenty seven or twenty twenty eight,
the well will run dry. So unless California delivers another
multi billion dollar bailout or Congress floods the system with
new federal dollars, which means money from Missouri or Florida,
or Tech and Texas and Ohio and Illinois and Washington

(10:38):
and Alabama, the Los Angeles Uni High School District will
face massive layoffs, school closures, and potential bankruptcy style restructuring
of the entire district. Now keep in mind, enrollment is down,

(10:59):
test score stagnant, and parents are fleeing to charter schools
and private options wherever they can because this is not
a funding crisis, this is a credibility crisis. You know,
California solds itself as this utopia of progressive spending. But

(11:22):
just like all the utopia is a progressive spendings, the
bills come do, and public education is first in line
to get cut off. The state's largest district is living
on borrowed time. The money is gone. The promises remain,
but the money is gone, and parents are stuck wondering

(11:44):
if their kids' school will will exist in three years.
This is what happens when leadership governs by slogans and
not spreadsheets. My name is William Lawson. This is the
Mona Report. The Monor Report or is a production of
Fightbackmedia dot Com. Fightbackmedia dot com, fightbackmedia dot com. Just

(12:07):
like always, go out there and learn something, love somebody,
and for goodness sakes, I'll take care of you so
we will see you when we see you, Bye bye