Supt. Romer Cutting Programs to Fund Teacher Pay Raises

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer said he has frozen administrative hiring and is cutting back dozens of programs to produce the $100 million needed to pay for teacher salary increases of more than 15%.

The budget tightening will become even more severe next year when he will have to find another $153 million to fund the new contract he negotiated with United Teachers-Los Angeles last month.

Union members voted overwhelmingly to ratify the tentative contract last week. The Board of Education is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday. If approved, it will be retroactive to July 1.

Romer vowed to find the money in the district’s $8.9-billion budget without cutting priority programs.

While asserting that the district bureaucracy is not unusually “fat,” Romer said he believes many programs are not pulling their weight in the mission to improve student achievement.