State control of Oakland public schools really has been a blessing, hasn’t it? Somehow, the state financial geniuses failed to notice during the past six years that the Oakland public schools have $15 million less than they thought. It took a private auditing firm hired by the locally elected – but still mostly powerless – school board to figure that out, according to the Trib. So if the state gurus somehow overlooked this debt, wouldn’t it be fair for the state to now forgive the district the equivalent amount from the loan it owes? After all, if the district had known about this debt, it could have made the cuts necessary to balance the budget. But because it wasn’t discovered until now, it puts the district deeper in the hole. But we know the drill. When the district screws up, there’s all hell to pay. And when the state messes up, well, then, there’s all hell to pay – for the district.
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