Newell Normand went off on Friday about the sorry state of educational finances in the Orleans Parish School District, which can't seem to get their heads around their own budget.
Schools could face a $36 million funding shortfall after an error in their budget projections that was nearly twice as bad as an earlier estimate of their own miscalculations, according to an update from the district on Friday.
“I really can’t wrap my head around this one. This is embarrassing! It is crazy! Education is a mess! It’s a debacle!” Newell said.
They overestimated property tax projections, believing they would increase by 18% for no apparent reason. No tax hike, no changes of any kind except more money was going to magically appear, Newell said.
"We are definitely a third world country," Normand said about the way funds were mishandled.
"This is Accounting 101," an irate Newell said. "What? Are you kidding me? Get off your duff and go sit at the office over there and demand to have that information. Because you cannot run a business entity without knowing what your revenue is going to be so that you can make legitimate projections. And let me just remind you every kid that goes to your school hopes and prays that you're doing it right because you're screwing up the lives of our children. Do you not take this seriously enough to get off your ass and do the right thing? This is crazy."
He explained that because of the financial catastrophe, the district now has schools laying off teachers. "We're cutting all kinds of expenses," he said. "They're pointing to this miscalculation of the revenue. And the system is pointing back, saying, 'Well, no, actually they've been having a problem for a while and their budgeting has been off track and they've done this and they've done that.'
"Okay, So what have you done about that? Have you compelled a remedial plan? Have you met with the board? Have you talked about what needs to be done to get back into compliance from a financial perspective? Because our community and our kids lives depend on your competency set, all of you together. This is embarrassing that we're sitting here pointing fingers at one another. And there's not anybody offering up anything.
"You should all be collectively ashamed of yourselves. How many not for profit organizations have I had on this show with the NOLA coalition out there going the extra mile? Raising dollars, providing services for these kids. But the base operation. The mothership is sinking. The mothership has a hull with all kinds of holes in it."
The worst part about it, Newell said, is this was known about in September. We're in his second week of November. "And according to NOLA.com and the reporting that they're doing, actually let me correct myself the lens. In their reporting. As of right now, today, they still don't know what the number should be. This is crazy in the city of New Orleans. They collect and it's the only parish, if my memory serves me correct, in the state of Louisiana, that they went to this and it was back under the moon Landrieu administration. This is how far back up this screwed up fiduciary fiscal mess goes back. They were in a bind. So in one year they moved from collecting property taxes in arrears to collecting it on the front end. In order to get their hands around some cash so that they could pay down some debt. Their bond rating wouldn't be impaired and they'd be able to do some things. And then they had to modify what they do in a way for it. So they know that number on the front end. And in January, they're collecting for the upcoming year. Every other parish does it in arrears, every other one. Sales taxes are collected monthly. Monthly. And that's why when they're when you're budgeting, you have to understand the manner in which your revenue comes to the entity. In the manner in which you spend. Has to be complementary to the manner in which your revenue source pays. Comes to you. Again. Accounting 101.
"This is embarrassing. Embarrassing. Thankfully, we are drowning in federal dollars and all kinds of aid from everywhere else. And it's probably the only way that we're going to come out of out of this. No one can argue about getting their fair share. You can get the fair share, but if you can't account for it, what good is. This is a joke. These people should ... something should happen to these people. You just don't miss this by that much."