School districts across California and the nation are caught in a financial vise.  Enrollments are falling, federal COVID relief funds have been depleted, and costs keep rising. Meanwhile, growing numbers of teacher's can't even  afford to live in the districts  where they work. That’s especially the case in high cost states like California where teachers and other staff are walking off the job in record numbers  So how do you give teachers the raises that almost everyone agrees they need without triggering deep cuts or even risking   insolvency? And is it even possible?In this episode, we explore that question with three guests who are grappling with it from very different vantage points. Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, breaks down the structural forces squeezing district budgets and makes the case that many districts have staffing levels out of alignment with their shrinking enrollments — a reckoning that's now unavoidable. Darin Brawley, superintendent of Compton Unified, has managed a district with five labor unions over 14 years without a strike, and explains how radical transparency about the budget has helped kept his district out of crisis. And Carrie Hahnel a board member at Alameda Unified and a senior associate partner at Bellwether, describes how her district recently navigated a threatened strike and reached a three-year contract — and what trade-offs came with it.The conversation is honest about how hard these choices are.  The challenge is whether districts and unions can make these trade-offs —together. Sign up here so we can keep you posted on future podcasts on how education leaders are responding to the mounting threats against public schools In the United States.