Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines proposed Friday cutting six
\ndays from the school year to help reduce an estimated $640-million
\ndeficit and avoid the need for widespread layoffs in the nation’s
\nsecond-largest school system.
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\nThe move, announced by news release Friday evening, would save the
\ndistrict $90 million and could spare up to 5,000 jobs, Cortines said.
\nThe alternative to this drastic action, he said, would be to let the
\ndistrict go bankrupt.
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\n"Do I think [this] is good education policy? No," he said. "But we are in a real crisis."
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\nCortines has repeatedly said that he did not want to shorten the school
\nyear. This is the first time in recent history that a Los Angeles
\nschool superintendent has made such a suggestion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\nFive of the affected days would be classroom days and the sixth would be a noninstructional day.
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\nUnion leaders would have to agree to the move. Nonunion employees,
\nincluding senior district staff, have been ordered to take four
\nfurlough days by May, and Cortines criticized groups that have not been
\nwilling to make concessions.<\/p>\n