CalProEd grew out of Michelle Boudier-Raley's last minute 2015 one-man-band campaign to be the president of the California Teachers Association. Even though Boudier lost the election, she rocked CTA to its core. CTA State Council Members took Michelle's message to heart. Several other officer positions went to newcomers, and Michelle was approached to go another route.

Four years before, Boudier had discovered millions of dollars meant to educate children going unspent in her district. She got her school board to move the majority of it back , saving programs and jobs. Three years later, she was asked by a teacher leader in a neighboring district (Twin Rivers) to look to see if there was money under the surface there. Sure enough, there was.

Then during the fall of 2017, Michelle was introduced to a teacher in Fountain Valley. That dear teacher had spent thousands of dollars on forensic CPA and attorney fees to try and get to the bottom of her district's finances. After eighteen months, they had not found what Boudier was able to show them in ten minutes.

Michelle was three for three. Her lucky number was eight, so she Googled "schools in the news" and calculated the increases for the first five districts that came up. Sure enough, all five had been hoarding millions of taxpayer dollars instead of getting them to the classroom, to the children. Omitting LA Unified because of its horrendous $5,100,000,000 (yes, $5.1 BILLION taxpayer dollars), the average actual reserve for the first eight districts averaged $189,000,000! With about one thousand districts in the state, Michelle had discovered $189,000,000,000 in unspent taxpayer dollars.

Boudier set an appointment with her local Assemblyman, but he would not see her until someone validated her findings.

Her Fountain Valley teacher buddy paid the forensic CPA to do so. Using Boudier's own sources (EdData and the Fountain Valley district Unaudited Actuals) and talking points, the CPA's report concluded that the information warranted further investigation. Together, the two teachers went to Sacramento.

Their first stop was the State Auditor's Office where Michelle submitted a Whistle-blower complaint ( link on this site's "Home" page:).

Next, the two teachers headed to the Capitol. Boudier hand-delivered letters to Governor Brown's mail room ( see this site's "Whistle Letter" page) and the State Finance Office. Next, the two delivered a copy of Michelle's Whistle-blower complaint to Cal-Tax before making their final stop downtown at The Sacramento Bee.

They weren't done though. Later that afternoon, they went to the appointment Michelle had set with the Assemblyman in the Roseville area. Michelle handed him a copy of everything including the forensic CPA's report. Like, everyone, the two teachers had talked to that day, he was very interested, but not shocked.

Since that day in February, Boudier has contacted a long list of other politicians, newspapers, organizations, and agencies looking for someone to champion the cause. There have been a few bright spots, but her bombshell has yet to make a real dent. It will take parents to lead the charge, and social media was not Michelle's forte.

The State Auditor and Attorney General agreed, under current legislation, Public school districts can squirrel away money if they want; it is not illegal. Public school districts are only accountable to the voters.

Michelle is more determined than ever to get the taxpayer's money back to students.

Boudier has researched almost forty districts, and she's still batting one thousand. Every single district has more than they now claim as they define "reserves".

Unfortunately over the last decade, keeping the budget as the focus of district finances has only caused the reserves to skyrocket. Michelle urges all involved to change their focus to historical actual spending. Then "The pie" can be spoken to intelligently. Budgets are not real numbers. Actuals are.

Odds are high your district has more than they claim. Contact Michelle, to expedite getting your district's information on the CalProEd website. The more people that know, the faster the money will get back to the kids.

Spread the word. CalProEd is bound to clear the slate and bring credibility back to the system, one district at a time.

thembfix@gmail.com