Budget Committee!

David I. Backer and Derek Gottlieb

Getting (Closer) to the Bottom of Your District's Finances

  1. Nov 6

    Lost in La SELPA (Natomas, CA)

    Two requests came in from Natomas Unified in north Sacramento. One says a superintendent described a disabled child's money as coming from "a different pot." The other asks for transparency. On paper, Natomas doesn't look like a district in crisis. So we follow the dollars into what Dave calls a repression crisis, centered on special education and the discipline of Black students with disabilities. In this episode: The backdrop: Natomas teachers held their first-ever strike in March, and Sacramento police pulled their school resource officers in January, citing staffing.The findings: the Sacramento County grand jury found a program struggling to meet student needs, and the state has flagged Natomas for over-identifying Black students as emotionally disturbed. The Attorney General found Black students almost four times as likely as white students to be suspended or expelled. The district denies wrongdoing and accepted a two-year settlement.Lost in La SELPA: in 2019 Natomas left the county's Special Education Local Plan Area to run its own. State aid doubled at first, but a small SELPA has less room to absorb high costs.The "different pot": California's main special education grant follows total attendance, not how many students have disabilities or what they need. Natomas spends about $20,000 per student with a disability, against $27,000 to $37,000 next door. Special education drew about $20.5M from its general fund in 2025-26. The new state budget lifts the base rate to $1,340 per student.Race and class together: why anti-racism trainings can't stand in for hiring enough people, and what the divide between North and South Natomas has to do with who gets suspended.Bureaucracy: David Graeber's dead zones of the imagination, rules of thumb versus Taylorism, and an educational case for Medicare for All.Our take: the special ed pot is real, but it's not an excuse. Federal law entitles these students to the services they need, whatever the state sends. The funding falls short in two ways: we need more dollars, and we need smarter ones. Further reading: Dead Zones of the Imagination by David Graeber · Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott · As Public as Possible (Dave's book) Music: Carsie Blanton. Art: Soumya Dhulekar. Chip in and join our Discord at budgetcommittee.show. Send us a request.

  2. Nov 4

    Blue Tsunami Post-Election (and school elections catchup)

    Special episode, recorded Nov. 4, the morning after the midterm tsunami. We set aside our usual rhythm to go through what the results mean for school finance, including places we've covered. The big question: is this the moment to walk out on the ice for the treasure? Join the Discord! In this episode: Wisconsin: Democrats won the governor's race and both houses of the Legislature. But the same night was a bad one for school referenda: only 30 of 61 operating questions decided so far passed, down from 72% in November 2024. Geneva J4 lost by one vote.Ohio: Amy Acton won, and Republicans may have lost their House supermajority. Cincinnati's Issue 4 passed with 61%. Pickerington lost by 256 votes. By our unofficial count, 71 of 133 school tax issues passed, but only 21 of 70 asking for new money.California: Prop 3 makes permanent an income tax on high earners worth $5-15B a year, while Prop 40, the one-time billionaire tax, is losing. Teachers unions split on it. When you tax the rich, do you want the big splash or the stable base?Chicago: the first 21-member elected board looks divided, with union-backed candidates about one seat short of a majority and Jessica Biggs beating the CTU's pick for president.Minnesota: 73% of voters raised the Permanent School Fund payout from 2.5% to 4.5%, and union-backed candidates swept Minneapolis, where a plan to close up to 16 schools is shelved for now. In Ann Arbor, the Together Forward slate won too.Old friends: Noblesville and most of Hamilton County, IN passed their referenda, and Stacy Lake won Jackson County executive, home of Hickman Mills.Bigger picture: former Austin school board member Gina Hinojosa won in Texas, and DSA's House bloc grows from two to at least seven.Our take: the treasure is out there, and the ice is still thin. Go forth with a broad vision: no one is expendable, and every part of the mission matters. Then do the wonky work of paying for it, starting with a meeting next week. Further reading: As Public as Possible (Dave's book) · The Education Myth by Jon Shelton · Dividing the Public by Matthew Gardner Kelly Music: Carsie Blanton. Art: Soumya Dhulekar. Chip in and join our Discord at budgetcommittee.show. Send us a request.

  3. Oct 28

    In Ohio, the Levies Are Dry (Pickerington, Cincinnati)

    Pre-election episode, recorded Oct. 27. 127 Ohio school districts have levies on the Nov. 3 ballot, and two listeners wrote in, one from Cincinnati and one from Pickerington. We take both, plus the state policy that put them there. See every Ohio (and Wisconsin, and Indiana) ballot question and district profile on our website. In this episode: The levy treadmill: HB 920 (1976) freezes what a voted levy raises, the 20-mill floor still applies, and a 2025 package capped inside-millage growth at inflation (HB 335). The state budget also banned replacement and emergency levies.The formula: the Ohio Supreme Court found school funding unconstitutional four times in DeRolph (1997-2002), and no court has supervised it since. Today's formula still prices costs as if it was 2022, and universal EdChoice vouchers draw from the same pot.The odds: new operating levies passed 36.7% of the time from 1994 to 2023 (OEPI). In May 2026, only 12 of 50 new levies passed (why).Cincinnati: Issue 4, a 7-mill levy, is the district's first new operating money in nearly a decade. It comes after the state put CPS in fiscal caution with a projected $44.5M deficit. Plus, how one accounting rule (GASB 101) cut its net position by $118M on paper.Pickerington: a growing district with no new operating money in 15 years. A 1.25% income tax failed in May with 37% yes. Now it's asking for 0.75%, with deeper cuts if that fails (WOSU).Our take: vote yes, then organize. The levy is the last lever districts have, and the people running it dry are in Columbus. Further reading: CPS on its levy · Pickerington finances · HB 335 analysis Music: Carsie Blanton. Art: Soumya Dhulekar. Chip in and join our Discord at budgetcommittee.show. Send us a request.

  4. Oct 23

    Reversed Courses and Broken Promises in Bellingham (WA)

    Two requests came in hot from Bellingham, Washington, where the superintendent has recommended closing Columbia and Carl Cozier elementaries after 2026-27, four years after voters approved a bond that paid to design their rebuilds. Dave calls it a story of reversed courses and broken promises. In this episode: The state frame: after McCleary (2012), Washington pays for schools through a prototypical-school formula with a regionalization factor. Bellingham's fell from 12% to 6%. Levies are capped, and there's no cushion for declining enrollment.Technocracy's tiny dials: Elizabeth Popp Berman's Thinking Like an Economist, Colander & Freedman's Where Economics Went Wrong, Anwar Shaikh's Capitalism, and Bruce Baker's School Finance Indicators Database.The reversal: a $122M bond in 2022 to design rebuilds of Roosevelt, Carl Cozier and Columbia and build a 15th elementary. The 15th was paused in 2024, a land deal with the city stalled, and now it's two closures and one rebuild (how we got here).Can they do that? Under RCW 28A.530.020, a board can change what bond money buys after a public hearing. No new vote required.The tours that lit up Facebook: prospective renters, including a private Christian school, toured both buildings; the district says no deal is planned. Dave checks a rumor going around about a board member's family and finds no evidence for it.The numbers: about $2.2M a year in projected savings; a general-fund reserve that halved from $23.3M (2022) to $11.7M (2025); a new district office opened in 2024; a scary staffing graph; and why birth rates don't predict suburban enrollment.Our take: closing two schools won't fix a state formula problem, and a levy vote is a promise, not a blank check. The district has some apologizing to do, and the board answers to voters. Public hearings: Columbia Nov. 2, Carl Cozier Nov. 3 (details). Further reading: Bellingham Neighborhood Schools Coalition · Cascadia Daily News · Washington's school-closure hearing law Music: Carsie Blanton. Art: Soumya Dhulekar. Chip in and join our Discord at budgetcommittee.show. Got a budget worth a closer look? Send us a request.

  5. Oct 12

    It's People, It's People, It's People (Little Rock, AR)

    Emergency episode, recorded Oct. 9. Organizers in Little Rock asked us about LRSD Forward, the district's plan to close Western Hills, Mabelvale and McDermott elementaries in fall 2027. There's a board vote expected this month. In this episode: Context: Arkansas's 3rd-largest district (18,964 students), disproportionately Black, Hispanic and English learners, down 22% since 2005 while the 10 largest districts grew 18%. Add LEARNS vouchers, a new $50K teacher-pay floor, and a formula the courts have found inadequate (Lake View).The savings math: the district assumes a closure cuts 40-45% of a school's operating cost (Arkansas Times). But utilities don't cost that much. People do..Will the real reserve number please stand up? $11M (district), $6.7M (Sept. 24 board meeting) or $14.6M (the state's statistical report)? Either way, it's thin, but these numbers shouldn't disagree with each other.The debt: $490.7M outstanding, mostly 2021 and 2024 building bonds. Debt service ($26M a year) now tops food spending.Who's on the list: the closing schools are 90% free/reduced lunch and 8% white -- student populations less wealthy and less white than the schools to be kept. See the Segregation Explorer and Oklahoma City v. Dowell.The research: Francis Pearman's California study found closures don't balance budgets and cost districts students.The elephant in the room: closing buildings only saves money when it goes along with staff cuts -- a thing districts never want to talk about. Ask for the staffing math, get clear on the reserve number, and where the receiving schools' families stand. Further reading: Democrat-Gazette · NAACP on the plan · Josh Cowen, The Privateers · Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Golden Gulag The receipts: our full district briefing and closure-plan brief are in the companion post. Music: Carsie Blanton. Art: Soumya Dhulekar. Got a budget worth a closer look? Send us a request.

  6. Oct 9

    I Ain't Afraid of No SPLOST (DeKalb County, GA)

    A listener asked us to look at DeKalb County School District in Georgia — ~92,000 students, coterminous with the county — and it turned into our most bonkers one yet. The wonkery: how Georgia pays for school buildings. The bonkery: everything else. In this episode: Two indicted superintendents — Devon Horton (federal kickback case out of Illinois; resigned after indictment) and, back in 2010, Crawford Lewis. Six supers since 2019.The main event: an E-SPLOST (one-cent sales tax for buildings). DeKalb never filed a new certificate of distribution, so the state overpaid it for ~4 years — now it owes ~$11.9M back to Decatur and Atlanta, delaying buses and fire alarms.Why DeKalb is squeezed: a 40-year-old QBE formula, a 20-mill cap (DeKalb's grandfathered at 22.98, near the top in GA — rate coverage), and HB 581's floating homestead exemption (FAQ), estimated at ~10% of revenue.Enrollment down ~7% since 2019, growth in the north and emptying in the south — hence a consolidation plan that floated closing 27 schools (revised) and raised hard financial questions.On the ballot Nov 3: E-SPLOST VII — up to $946.8M, with ~$175M for Druid Hills High and ~$165M for Clarkston High. New super: Dr. Norman Sauce III.Our take: the district needs the money — vote yes — but watch the offices that move it, not just the superintendent. Sources & further reading: Decaturish · WABE · Ballotpedia · DeKalb millage hearing (PDF) Got a budget worth a closer look? Send us a tip. For educational purposes only — not legal or fiscal advice.

  7. Sep 25

    Ref-er-EN-dum, Indiana (Noblesville)

    Meet Noblesville — a ~10,000-student school corporation in Hamilton County, Indiana. Their current $25M/year operating referendum expires at the end of this year; they're going for a renewal and expansion on Nov. 3. The ballot ask is $43M/year or 57¢ per $100 of assessed value. The choice on the ballot is stark: +$18M/year or -$25M/year. Everything else — the CFO's 4% raise, the "20% waste" vibe, the "you can't convince me" audit reads — is noise around that one decision. Along the way: why Indiana calls its districts "corporations" (a 1959 Reorganization Act, opening the old Dillon–Cooley debate about whether local governments are actually public); Indiana's 2008 property-tax revolt and the 2010 constitutional 1%/2%/3% caps on residential, ag, and commercial property, backfilled by a one-penny sales tax hike; the 2025 SEA 1 reforms — a state homestead tax credit, referendums restricted to November general elections, and mandatory per-pupil sharing of referendum revenue with charter schools; why Noblesville feels the 1% residential cap hardest as a mostly-residential district where Noblesville Schools is the #1 employer (2,056 jobs vs. Hamilton County's 1,031); Carmel Clay's 18¢ ask that yields roughly the same absolute revenue as Noblesville's 57¢ because of a much richer property base; and a real, unforced error: A finding in the FY2023 State Board of Accounts audit — nine-figure overstatements and understatements of interbank transfers and clearing-fund activity — worth actually reading. WORKS MENTIONED - David I. Backer, As Public as Possible - Bonnie Honig, Public Things (Fordham UP, 2017) - David Schleicher, In a Bad State (Oxford, 2023) - Gail Radford, The Rise of the Public Authority (U. Chicago, 2013) - Jonathan Levy, The Real Economy (PUP, 2025) NOBLESVILLE SOURCES - Noblesville Schools: https://www.noblesvilleschools.org/ - Noblesville 2026 referendum page: https://www.noblesvilleschools.org/referendum - Indiana State Board of Accounts — audit search (Noblesville Schools): https://gateway.ifionline.org/report_builder/ - SBOA main site: https://www.in.gov/sboa/ - Indiana Gateway (district financial reports): https://gateway.ifionline.org/ - Hamilton Southeast referendum coverage (WFYI): https://www.wfyi.org/ - Indianapolis Star, Hamilton County school-tax coverage: https://www.indystar.com/ INDIANA SCHOOL FINANCE POLICY - Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, property tax caps: https://www.in.gov/dlgf/property-tax-caps/ - Indiana Constitution Art. 10 §1 (2010 caps amendment): https://iga.in.gov/laws/current/constitution/article-10 - Indiana SEA 1 (2025) property-tax reform: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/1 - Indiana Department of Education, school finance: https://www.in.gov/doe/finance/ - Indiana school funding formula (basic + complexity grants): https://www.in.gov/doe/grants/school-financial-information/ - Americans for Prosperity Indiana: https://americansforprosperity.org/indiana/ CREDITS Music: Carsie Blanton — https://carsieblanton.com Artwork: Soumya Dhulekar — https://www.soumyadhulekar.com/ Request form: https://linktr.ee/budgetcommittee

  8. Sep 16

    If You Close It, They Will Leave (Minneapolis Public Schools)

    EMERGENCY EPISODE — MINNEAPOLIS Recorded as the MPS board heads announces plans to close 15-16 school buildings. This is about why school closures don't solve budget deficits, and what to push for instead. MPS enrollment has fallen from 46,000 in 2001-02 to about 27,700 today (a 21% drop since 2015). The district faces a $50M deficit growing to $100M by 2030 without "structural changes." Three top finance leaders left in January 2026, and reporting has surfaced multiple multimillion-dollar accounting errors — including $4.1M in lost special-ed reimbursement. The district's own numbers show only ~$39K per building in operating savings from closure — meaning the real "savings" are staff cuts. WORKS MENTIONED - Manuel P. Teodoro et al., The Profits of Distrust Cambridge UP, 2022): https://www.cambridge.org/9781316518892 - David I. Backer, As Public As Possible (New Press, 2025) - Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. (Harvard UP, 2011) MPS COVERAGE & SOURCES -Sept 15 2026 School Board Presentation - MPS district site - Board signals closures (MN Reformer) - $4.1M accounting error (MN Reformer, Aug 2026): - Star Tribune, closures fight - Star Tribune, accounting error and layoffs - MinnPost, 2020 CDD redesign - Fox9, closure plan (Sept 14, 2026): CREDITS Music: Carsie Blanton — https://carsieblanton.com Artwork: Soumya Dhulekar — https://www.soumyadhulekar.com/ Request form: https://linktr.ee/budgetcommittee

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About

Getting (Closer) to the Bottom of Your District's Finances

Information

  • Creator
    David I. Backer and Derek Gottlieb
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © David I. Backer and Derek Gottlieb

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