CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SACRAMENTO

Officials announced Friday that the state budget crisis has caused a delay in payments to school districts, but they were hopeful that no school system would experience cash-flow problems as a result.

This delay marks the second time this year that the delivery of school funding has been postponed. A February legislative deal put off paying $2 billion that was due at that time so the state could keep its books balanced. But California’s worsening financial condition has resulted in an additional postponement applying to these dollars as well as another $2 billion that would have gone out to school districts on Friday.

Instead, those funds, totaling about $4 billion, will be released July 30 to ensure that the state has sufficient cash on hand.

-- Howard Blume