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…

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…

Zero-base budgeting (ZBB), a systematically structured approach to budgeting, has the potential to improve policy attainment, resource reallocation, program review, and information systems. Some 300 businesses, a dozen states, one municipality, and one school district in the United States have operationalized the concept. Many private and public…

Although the public is best served by governmental agencies which have integrated the major functions of planning, managing, and budgeting, it can be asserted that the planning function is paramount. A review of the evolution of public agency administration in the U.S. reveals that until recent years the planning function has been largely…

This paper represents a backdrop from which to consider the development of a planning and budgeting model for local education agencies. The first part of the presentation describes the demands and external pressures that affect resource allocation decisions in school districts. The ability of local school officials to link the cost consequences…

This document discusses the role of educational objectives in the construction of a program budget. Special emphasis is given to the necessity of specifying primary objectives--those that support basic values and fulfill community needs. Because primary objectives are at the top of the educational objectives hierarchy and provide the format for…

This manual was prepared to provide local school districts with a model to follow in implementing a local planning-programing-budgeting system (PPBS). Section I (chapters 1-4) gives the basic concepts and overall design of a PPB system for local districts. Section II (chapters 5-7) describes computations used in a semiautomated PPBS version,…

Program budgeting is more than a neat method of budgeting by program; hence it requires more than just concentration on budgeting and accounting procedures. Program budgeting, basically a resource allocations system, stresses the setting of objectives, grouping activities into programs to meet the objectives, identifying the resources required by…

This primer introduces the basics of Program Management and Budgeting (PMB) in an effort to demonstrate how PMB can benefit school systems. Short quotes from previous publications on the topic are paired with cartoons designed to clarify the purposes and workings of the program. The publication begins by defining PMB as an alternative financial…

This book is devoted exclusively to the budgeting process in school districts, unlike the more common generic budgeting texts. As such, it allows an in-depth treatment of both conceptual and practical aspects of budgeting in a single volume. By default, school business officials have had to rely on the state education accounting manual as their…

A school district's governing board, superintendent, and business manager should work as an effective fiscal policy team with good communication. This self-assessment guide is designed to assist in the overall evaluation of fiscal policy team communication. Four sections (budget development, budget monitoring, financial reporting, and…

A fully developed planning, programing, and budgeting system comprises more than the program budget and its financial information; it is a system of analysis intended to assist the decisionmaker in choosing among alternative courses of action for the school district programs. Its most salient feature is its usefulness as a general analytical tool…

This paper is concerned with the conceptual problems of developing an administrative planning system for local school districts. Specific planning procedures will be published later as part of a completed PPBS model. Definitions of certain concepts lead to a "Typology of Planning Behavior," which distinguishes three levels of planning…