What's going on with A.I.S.D.

An article titled "Time for Austin school chief to level with us," on the Statesman website, published by their editorial board encompasses the hard times facing the teachers within the Austin, and presumably the surrounding areas.  Looking past the the obvious lay-offs, teachers are now having to face the decision to either take a lump sum of about $10,000 and forfeit their eligibility for unemployment benefits, or to wait until they are out of a job to file for unemployment which will pay approximately the same amount.  I'm a 23 year old kid, and after i got out of the Marine Corps I was on unemployment and know from experience that it is IMPOSSIBLE to sustain a household on that income alone.  If a 23 year old with next to no bills cannot stay afloat financially on unemployment, how can they expect someone raising a family to do so?Also the article talks about the A.I.S.D.'s allowances for things such as car stipends and bonuses for employees.  Now, I was under the assumption that teachers were employees of the city and, if anything, board members should be driving cars supplied by the city, not creating spending where spending can afford to be cut to keep teachers in the classroom.  I agree with the authors of this article because if the A.I.S.D. is in such a financial bind, then the public, who also pay their salaries, deserves to be told where their money is going as well as an explanation of how they plan on getting over this hurdle.