It does, however, point out the need to focus school spending on classroom instruction. If the mission of the schools is to educate, then the spending should be focused on education, not ancillary or support services.
I examined the most recent budget documents that were posted online by the NASD and ten years worth of budget data was available beginning with 1998-99 actual through 2007-08 budget.
During this time the total expenditures rose from $ 32,114,000 to $ 59,381,000, total enrollment from 4033 to 4796, and Regular Instruction (Line item 1100) as a percent of the total expenditures has been reduced from 45.5% to 40.3%.
In order to make the budget more focused on education it would seem the NASD will need to do a few things with the new 2007-08 budget:
- Increase efficiency in non-instructional areas.
- Ensure technology and curriculum implementations produce a positive ROI or cut them.
- Reduce Debt and manage future growth.
What do you think? Should regular instruction be used as one budget benchmark with targets per area to ensure spending reflects goals? Can the NASD and Board effectively identify efficiency (it appears they build on a budget instead of evaluating it from bottom up as indicated by the essential needs- what we had last year, and value added ones, what we want to add on)?
1 comment:
All spending needs to be raked over with a fine tooth comb because this is a way to be sure we are on budget with goals and money is put into the education of our children and not unnecessary wants of others.
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