School Budgeting for Hard Times: Confronting Cutbacks and Critics

Confronting Cutbacks and Critics seeks to provide administrators and school leaders with tools, procedures, and insights into how productivity can be enhanced within the prevailing context of limited resources and problematical decision-making in resource allocations. It will guide school leaders in the budgeting process, offering insight on how to: follow principles of quality enhancement with cost-benefit analysis; capitalize on the benefits of performance-based budgeting processes to get optimal productivity; and, assure their constituencies that confidence in the school system is not misplaced. School improvement calls for careful planning, particularly in the use of scarce resources. As educators work to budget financial, human and technical resources for school quality enhancement, the focus of activity must be on what needs to be achieved, not what the organization plans to buy.