¶ … School Surveys by the National Association of Independent Schools last year indicated that the issue relating to money management in the schools was among the most pressing issues and challenges facing school leadership. The questions were related to re-thinking financing the schools for proving quality and cost effective education to students efficiently. Last fall, National Business Officers Association held a meeting of school heads, trustees, business managers, and advancement professionals to begin to explore the possibilities of re-engineering the ways schools approach financing. Preliminary thinking from that symposium led to the offering that until schools can manage their own funds the quality of education is unlikely to improve.

Schools in the 21st century require, among other things, thoughtful leadership in the domain of financing. Such leadership will engage schools in serious financial modeling, projecting forward five years to produce differing financial scenarios in an attempt to develop the preferred educational model for the future.

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Districts raise money and determine how it is spent on schools, and states and the federal government distribute money to districts. Schools receive resources - teachers, books, transportation - but they rarely receive money. This district emphasis needs to change to a school orientation if effective education needs are to be implemented. School effectiveness research clearly identifies the school as the key organizational unit. Therefore, decision-making authority over the school budget is a key prerequisite to effective restructuring. Under this approach, the state would allocate most dollars in a lump sum directly to schools. An even more radical approach would be for states over time to fund schools directly.
Allan Odden and William Clune (1995) point that, "the poor resource distribution across states, districts, schools, and students, and unimaginative use of existing funds and money lead to the low performance of the school." Similarly, James Guthrie (1994) notes that, " educators' inability to obtain accurate school-level…