Funny thing about legal agreements is that the other party expects you to uphold them. Yesterday, the SLPS and VICC sued the State of Misery for not living up to the obligations of the Desegregation Settlement.
Accounting tricks are nice, but they don’t actually solve public policy problems. In this case there is an legal agreement that requires full funding and the state, after it winds it way up the legal system, will end up paying.
One of the arguments about the desegration suits in St. Louis is that they often saved the State of Missouri from itself–apparently those suits still are.