At the core, budgeting is about distributing and redistributing limited financial resources for continuous improvement. Incremental budgeting is limited in achieving the goal due to lack of connection between outcomes and budget decisions. Zero-based budgeting fills the gap, but is cumbersome to implement, especially for large urban school…

School business officials are best equipped to lead in funding operating and capital needs because they understand the need for a methodical means of funding ongoing costs over time and the benefits of planning for future financial needs rather than letting emergencies dictate spending priorities. A capital-financing plan makes it possible to…

School superintendents annually need to gain affirmative votes from their governing bodies to approve their district budgets. This paper proposes a framework through which the superintendent can express the district's educational needs and concomitant resource allocations in conceptual terms rather than in multi-columned ledgers. The framework…

By late 2008, the United States was in the midst of its most severe economic recession since the 1930s, brought on by a collapse in real estate prices and exacerbated by the failure of many large banks and financial institutions. Heeding calls from economists, Congress and the Obama administration passed a historic law in early 2009 to stimulate…

Principals must devote a vast amount of time and energy to campus funding and budgetary issues because budgeting and accounting procedures are an integral part of an effective instructional program. In fact, a principal's role in the budgetary process significantly impacts both budget development and instructional planning. Principals who fail to…

Museum educators at small museums are sometimes thrust, solo, into building budgets from scratch. In this case study an emerging professional discovers that she has limited funding for an existing program that she was hired to run. She finds that she has to rebuild the budget to discover the program's true costs, and that sustainability depends…

President Barack Obama submitted his third budget request to Congress on February 14th, 2011. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming 10 fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2012 funding levels for individual programs subject to appropriations. Congress will use…

Federal budget outlays totaled $3.5 trillion in 2009, of which somewhat less than 10 percent ($334 billion) was devoted to children. Despite increased spending on children under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the kids' share of total outlays actually fell modestly to 9.5 percent in 2009, down from 9.8 percent the…

In March of each year, the ministry publishes the Operating Grants Manual showing estimated funding allocations for school districts for the upcoming school year. These estimates are based on enrolment projections. On September 30 of the new school year, enrolment is counted and the grants are recalculated based on actual enrolment. The ministry…

The Florida Community College Inter-Institutional Research Council (IRC) has developed a computerized budget simulation model which can help administrators determine the general fiscal impact of alternate approaches to resource utilization. This model uses three basic systems and one generalized subroutine, based on the budget requirements of the…

This book offers an independent analysis of the New York City education budget for 1981 by the Educational Priorities Panel (EPP). It represents an alternative to the mayor's budget, which calls for $89 million in cuts, and the board of education budget. The first two chapters contain background information on the EPP and an explanation of the…

A PROGRAM BUDGET IS A POLICY AND PLANNING DOCUMENT WHOSE GOAL IS TO DEFINE PROGRAM ELEMENTS AT AS HIGH A LEVEL OF AGGREGATION AS POSSIBLE WHILE REMAINING CONSISTENT WITH A DESIRABLE LEVEL OF HOMOGENEITY. THERE ARE THREE MAJOR PHASES OF PROGRAM BUDGETING--PLANNING, PROGRAMING, AND BUDGETING. DISCUSSIONS OF A UNIVERSITY BUDGET, DECISION MATRICES IN…

This chapter of "Principles of School Business Management" analyzes the types of budget preparation that are used in school districts across the United States. The chapter proposes as a basic premise that the budgetary process is inherently political, and states that some budgeting methods may provide more useful political information…

In fiscal year 1995, Head Start--the centerpiece of federal early childhood programs--was appropriated $3.5 billion to provide a range of services to eligible, preschool-aged children from low-income families. Since 1990, Congress increased funding for Head Start by 135 percent to allow more children the opportunity to participate and to improve…

This report presents a proposed budget for the California State University (CSU) system (1991-92) which concentrates on three critical needs: financing enrollment increases; staffing new facilities; and restitution of funds removed from the basic budget for 1990-91. The budget proposal represents $1.94 billion, 13.7 percent over 1990-91, on…