The Math Behind the Outrage
PUBLISHED BY LAGUNA BEACH INDEPENDENT ON MARCH 20, 2026
There has been a lot of noise around the “$1.77 million” health care issue in Laguna Beach Unified, and at this point, the number is being used more to inflame people than to inform them.
Yes, there was a real problem. For several years, the district failed to consistently apply the health care contribution formulas outlined in employee contracts. This issue should have been caught much sooner and needed to be corrected. No one disputes this.
However, the way this issue is being framed now is deeply misleading.
District staff brought this issue to public attention and commissioned an independent review. The review found a compliance and internal controls problem, but more importantly, did not find evidence of fraud, theft, or funds being “diverted.” These words are loaded and go far beyond what the actual record supports.
The main problem with the public conversation is the way the “$1.77 million” figure is being thrown around as if it tells the whole story when it does not.
$1.77 million is the total only from the years when the district paid more than the contract formula required, from FY23 to FY26. What keeps getting left out is that in FY21 and FY22, staff overpaid, so the district owed them. After completing the full reconciliation, the number brought forward for corrective action was $1.04 million. That is the figure the board acted on.
So no, this is not a case of “simple math” being ignored. It is a matter of people choosing the biggest number because it makes for a better scandal.
Context and honesty are important.
Teachers and staff did not create this problem. They selected plans from the available options based on the information provided. They should not be blamed for administrative mistakes they did not make, and they should not be turned into political punching bags because some people want to manufacture outrage.
While $1.04 million is significant, it represents a 6-year correction in a district with an annual general fund of approximately $85 million. Serious? Yes. Worth fixing? Absolutely. Proof of some sweeping conspiracy? No.
If this issue were truly as obvious and clear-cut as some claim, it would be fair to ask why a formal review and full reconciliation were necessary to determine the amount. The truth is less dramatic than the outrage campaign suggests: an administrative failure, not the scandal some people desperately want it to be.
We should require accountability, but the public also deserves accuracy, and right now that has been in short supply.
Erika Hennon Rule
LBUSD Parent
Aliso Viejo
