FIX THE BUDGET FIRST

Look at the district's own September numbers and the incentive is obvious.

The board adopted a 2026-27 budget with a $228.9 million deficit. On September 10 it adopted revisions that bring that to $424,000 — on paper. Its own slides say the balance depends on a $30.9 million one-time state grant counted as permanent, on state settle-up money assumed two years running, on a one-time $31.7 million redevelopment transfer, and on a labor deal the county's fiscal adviser has stayed. Even then, in the district's words, "the district does not meet the minimum reserve in any projected year" — about $25 million short every year, with the deficit back in 2028-29. The state's fiscal crisis chief called those projections "Monopoly money."

A district $25 million short of a legally required reserve, every year, is a district looking for $10 million it can move.

And the same September plan reduced the district's own special-education budget by $34 million — a 2.5% growth cap — while the board asked you for $10 million more for special education. Read those two facts together. The district takes $34 million out of the special-ed budget it controls, and asks voters to put $10 million into a special-ed account that lets it take more out.

Measure M isn't in the district's own recovery plan. It doesn't have to be. Its job is to free up general-fund money, and it can do that from a separate account.