Notable Quotable:
“We believe in allowing families to choose the school that’s the best fit for their children. To make school choice possible, dollars follow students,” Tommy Chang, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools
Student Based Budgeting in the News:
Analysis of Clark County School District’s Reorganization Highlights Need for Weighted-student Funding
The district’s massive reorganization also needs to develop better technology to track expenditures as it currently processes about 18,000 human-resource forms by hand.
Boston Public Schools Reaffirms Commitment to Maximizing Dollars that Flow to School Budgets
BPS will also engage community stakeholders to find ways to unlock more dollars to re-invest in the classroom.
California Taxpayers in the Dark on School-level Spending
Policymakers should improve accountability and transparency by making it simple for parents to find detailed spending numbers that are easily comparable across schools and districts.
North Carolina Working toward Revamping Funding Formula
The state’s Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee approved a preliminary draft of legislation that would create a task force to explore adopting weighted student funding.
Student Based Budgeting 101:
ClassWallet Sits Down with Reason Foundation’s Tyler Koteskey
Koteskey notes “another thing that helps make student-based budgeting effective is giving principals autonomy over the school budget so they can use their local knowledge of what kids need in their schools, and to use resources most effectively.”
Podcast: Decentralizing School Funding
Lisa Snell discusses the benefits of allowing money to follow the child on The Heartland Daily Podcast with Heather Kays.
Best Practices Spotlight:
Case Study: Increasing Student-based Allocations in Denver Public Schools
A paper by Edunomics Lab shows how DPS refined its weighted-student formula over time to incrementally increase principal autonomy.
Follow School Finance Groups and Experts on Twitter:
- Center for American Progress @EdProgress
- Education Research Strategies @ERStrategies
- Center for Reinventing Public Education @CRPE_UW
- Afton Partners @aftonpartners
- Edunomics Lab @EdunomicsLab
- Public Impact @publicimpact
- EdBuild @EdBuild
- Reason Foundation @LisSnell
- Reason Foundation @AaronGarthSmith
- Reason Foundation @TKoteskey76
- Allovue @AllovueBalance
- Allovue @jessgartner