Last week, the Los Angeles Unified School District kicked off a week of budget negotiations by introducing a “fiscal stabilization plan” for a variety of vague-sounding budget cuts the district would commit to making over the next three years. The problem at hand, according to the district, was that by the end of the 2027-28 school year LAUSD would be forced to spend $1.5 billion with money it would not have.   What the district failed to mention in that opening discussion, however, was that $1.1 billion of that $1.5 billion was the result of completely optional (and unprecedented in size) contribution into the “Retiree Health Benefits Fund”—an irrevocable trust where the district can park money, invest it, and possibly one day pay for retiree health benefits (often referred to as “other post-employment benefits” or OPEB). At present, LAUSD pays the entirety of its retiree health benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis from the general fund, not the trust.  Any contributions into the trust are an entirely separate expense from the actual cost of the benefits year to year.