I think what will happen is that life will go on minus the excess that today is viewed as essential.
I was a partner in a company that got caught up in the recession in Houston in 1985. At a meeting of the operations managers, I asked for a reduction in operating cost of about 20%. Everyone was in shock. "We can't do that", they exclaimed, "Somewhere we have to find an additional 15% in revenue to offset the deficit." Of course, I knew that if there were that much unclaimed revenue available to us that Sales would have already brought it in. After all, they were paid on commission.
We met again the next morning and everyone still claimed that they couldn't operate on 20% less. Our business was labor intensive and it meant that most of the cuts would be to direct labor. So, at that point I asked everyone to review their operation and provide me with an orderly way to start shutting down operations. I wanted contracts reviewed and terminated. Customers had to be given notice to find a new supplier and service arrangements, etc. Our schedule had to have us closing the doors in two weeks.
At the next meeting, the managers came back with a RIF schedule that removed about 22% of the operational expenses. The company recovered to the point that it was sold two years later and is still in business. It's amazing what you can do when there are no choices.
A note to MUSD: Find a way to educate your students using the resources that you have available. There is no additional revenue. People who generate that revenue are out of work and many of the homes that comprise your tax base are vacant. Maybe there won't be music class or other electives. They're great to have but they're not essential. Work within the framework of the revenue you're going to be receiving for the foreseeable future.
Oh, and the more you talk about "Apocalypse Now", the more you're going to be driving parents to put their children to the charter schools that are popping up more frequently than pizza shops and dental offices in Maricopa. That's going to further reduce the funding you're receiving from the state. Somebody got that message because I see that InMaricopa changed it's headline from the Apocalypse Now reference to "Board tables approval of teacher layoffs", which is much more representative of the fact.
