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Public School Funding
Financial reports are designed to help in making evidence-based decisions by school management and other organizations. decision-making. Generally, a financial statement is used as a management tool to facilitate critical financial information communication to external and internal stakeholders. These management tools cover all aspects of finance for an organization coupled with specific KPIs. Every school in a given country, state, or district needs resources to run its operations, narrowing down to finances and money (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2018). The way the schools get their funds varies from community to community and state to state. However, there are fundamental funding ideologies that are relatively uniform all over the country.
School district funding is based on the number of students enrolled, with adjustments made for unique student needs and other district-specific factors. Schools prepare two budgets. First, a preliminary budget before the beginning of the financial year, and secondly, an amended final budget once enrollment is known and funding amounts are re-calculated. Budgeting is essential because it impacts the financial health of an entity. Budgeting also determines how funding will be allocated and how services will be rendered.
Public schools receive funding meant for different uses from various sources, including the federal government. There are staffing entitlements, property funding for capital works, and funding for special activities and operational budget. The infrastructure division administers the property funding, while staffing and operational funding entitlements are administered by resourcing division. Schools, too, can generate income from fee-paying students, donations, trusts, or fundraising activities. The government pays staffing entitlements through the ministry of education to the teachers employed by the school as the salary. The church pays these salaries directly to teaching staff through an agency. The school head is responsible for making sure that the school's financial utility does not go beyond the allocated school. Every school operation that is driven by finances has to stay within budget. Operational...
It includes staff professional development, leases, rentals, classroom materials, purchase and depreciation of capital items, property maintenance, and wages of all non-teaching staff (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2018).
According to education week, the funds come from different federal, local, and state levels. School budgeting comes from fees, sales tax, and income taxes, whereby all these are from the state resources, not forgetting local contribution through property taxes within the area. The federal government also chips in to fund some percentage in school funds and services. According to the United States Constitution, the states are responsible for school governance and equipping the institution to meet the needs of their students. Allocation of funds varies from one state to another and is considered using adequacy and equity.
According to Mulvenon et al. (2019), the American Rescue Plan offers schools the opportunity to address maintenance needs backlogs. The Plan provides funding aid to set up the community's infrastructure, including the education sector, leaving alone health issues. According to the Plan, the schools have until 2024 to complete their projects without a rush. The U.S House has allocated grants and bonds to school districts for infrastructure development. The schools situated in high-income areas have an easy time for bond issuing that often requires strong crating of credit and voter approval. Mulvenon et al. (2019) argue that district schools affected by racial segregation are particularly behind in development, funding, and renovations. Now that states have set ambitious performance goals for their students and the federal No Child Left Behind act has demanded that all children achieve those standards (Mulvenon et al., 2019). The push is to link education spending to academic results. The states are yet to make a change to funding with an emphasis on student performance.
In a literature review on a quality approach to school funding, Heimans (2019) writes that various fundamental principles should guide school finance reform at the state and federal levels. Child welfare programs and education should receive a full reimbursement by the government. The school funding system should ensure equal access to core educational services, outcome-based accountability should serve as a check on the school funding system, and school funding should provide significant additional resources for low-income…
References
Allison, G. S. (2020). Financial Accounting for Local and State School Systems: 2019 Edition. NCES 2015-347. National Center for Education Statistics.
Heimans, J. (2019). Strengthening participation in public expenditure management: policy recommendations for key stakeholders.
Mulvenon, S. W., Wang, K., McKenzie, S., & Airola, D. (2019). Case Study: Using Geographic Information Systems for Education Policy Analysis. Educational Research Quarterly, 30(2), 45-56.
Hanushek, E. A., & Lindseth, A. A. (2018). Schoolhouses, courthouses, and statehouses: Solving the funding-achievement puzzle in America's public schools. Princeton University Press.
School uniforms in public school has been a subject of national debate. Private and Parochial schools have a long history of school uniforms. Its implementation in public schools has been met with sharp criticism, it came to gain momentum in the late 1980's and it has been increasing steadily throughout the years. In some past few years the subject has gotten various boosts. The biggest boost was when in January
In fact, the No Child Left Behind Act, and other standardized test-based programs are "increasing incentives for school administrators to allow [poorly performing] students to quietly exit the school system ("Negative Implications," 2008). Being a high school drop out in today's society is not easy for these students, many of whom may already be disadvantaged in a variety of means. When they are simply allowed and encouraged to drop
Inconsistent evaluation methods between public, private, and charter schools, as well as the ever-present problems with whether or not achievement is actually measured accurately by standardized test scores, are two issues that must be taken into account when evaluating the findings of this report. Despite all of this negative press for charter schools, some studies do appear to show that these schools may be a positive learning atmosphere for students
Property tax relief is a subject that arises when the elderly or poor struggle to meet their property tax burdens. If they are long-term residents, they can be caught up when their neighborhood sees a dramatic increase in property values. There are sometimes mechanisms that governments use in order to provide relief. Both tax credits and rebates can be used to help return some of the money paid or that is
... Only one in 100 high school seniors could write a coherent response of more than one paragraph to an essay question; and only 7% of high school seniors could read at advanced level." (Hanushek) In the light of this vast body of very forceful evidence, we cannot but agree that our public education system has deteriorated to the extent that we can no longer expect our public schools to produce
Public School Prayer: Is it Constitutional and Moral? Proponents of allowing public school prayer cite both legal and moral reasons to allow prayer in public schools. On a legal basis they state that banning prayer in public schools is a violation of our First Amendment right of Free Exercise. From a moral standpoint they cite the so-called degeneration of the public school system and the so-called declining quality of public education