Notable Quotable:
“Spending drives everything in a school district, including the ability to hire highly-qualified teachers, offer professional development, ensure that students are supported with wraparound services, evaluate the curriculum, assure the safety and cleanliness of school facilities, and provide extracurricular offerings, technology infrastructure, food, field trips, library resources, college prep, and more. And yet, despite its importance, many superintendents don’t have access to the financial data they need to make critical budgetary decisions.”- Terry Grier, retired superintendent of Houston Independent School District
Student Based Budgeting in the News:
Study Finds North Carolina’s Funding System in Desperate Need of Repair
A comprehensive report details how the state’s allocation practices lack transparency and favor affluent counties. The study recommends further study and consideration of a weighted student formula approach to school finance in North Carolina.
Mississippi the Latest State to Pursue Student-based Budgeting
Lawmakers look to replace the state’s decades-old formula that relies on local property tax contributions and categorical funding to allocate resources.
Lawmaker Turned School Founder: What it Takes to Open a Charter in California
“You get caught up in the bowels of the Sacramento educational bureaucracy. You have to try to navigate around a system that is set up financially to choke it until it fails”, says former State Sen. Gloria Romero.
What Does a Trump Administration Mean for Education Policy?
Questions remain, but federal block grants could be directed toward promoting school choice.
Student Based Budgeting 101:
A Principal’s Role in Student-based Budgeting
Budget autonomy does not require school leaders to become Excel whizzes, but should empower them to align school resources with strategic priorities.
Best Practices Spotlight:
District Finances Top Ten: What Superintendents Need to Know
#5: Are your schools’ budgets aligned to address their most glaring academic problems?
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