As a starting point for the Strategic School Funding for Results (SSFR) project, the AIR/PLP (American Institutes for Research/Pivot Learning Partners) team developed a series of protocols to conduct interviews and focus groups with district administrators and school principals. The purpose of these interviews and focus groups was to gain an…

If one wanted to win a library election in 2006, what would have been the mythical perfect referenda? For building referenda, the sweet spot was hit with measures over $10 million, on a ballot sometime between September and December, with no other items on the ballot, in a general election, for a library serving a population under 100,000. For the…

Funders and program planners want to know: What does it cost to operate a high-quality after-school or summer program? This study answers that question, discovering that there is no "right" number. Cost varies substantially, depending on the characteristics of the participants, the goals of the program, who operates it and where it is located.…

Using fiscal data provided by the finance office of the school district, and personnel data obtained from the California Basic Education Data System maintained by the California Department of Education (CDE), the authors present analyses to provide a foundation for local policymakers that may be used to assess whether there are inequities in the…

The State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report is produced annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of multiple decisions made every year in each of these areas. No single report can provide definitive answers to such broad and fundamental questions of public…

The summary data and statistical schedules contained in this document have been compiled from the individual submissions of each of the provincially assisted universities. The submissions show details of the university operating revenue and the operating expenses by function and object of expense. The data reflect budget forecasts prepared prior…

The materials on budgeting presented here are based on training programs conducted for women's centers through the Women's Educational Equity Project of the women's center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The booklet's purpose is to provide users with explicit information on developing and negotiating budgets for women's programs.…

This article reviews the key features of zero base budgeting as a budgeting/planning system, discusses the applications of ZBB reported in the literature, and summarizes its special benefits and problems for libraries. Fifteen references are included. (Author/RAA)

Cost control is the subject of this eight-lesson, three-test food service training manual. Lesson 1 deals with financial accountability and includes 17 handouts, ranging from sample balance to quarterly report sheets. Lesson 2 focuses on budgeting principles, and lesson 3 on labor controls. Professional purchasing, receiving, and inventorying…

Information on state tax support of higher education in the United States is presented. In addition to trend data since 1976, data on state tax-fund appropriations for each state and specific colleges and systems are provided for fiscal years (FY) 1985-1986 and 1986-1987. A narrative section reveals that there was an increase of nearly two billion…

To provide baseline cost data for facilitation of future decisions on resource allocation and to develop a model for compiling and reporting direct expenditures, the Indiana State University conducted a study of expenditures supporting the activities of the School of Education during the fiscal year 1972-73. A computer program was prepared to…

Principal budgetary approaches underlying the allocation of instructional resources to an institution of higher education to maintain its continuing programs are briefly considered from several standpoints, and an alternative approach is developed. The constrained ratio approach is conducive to innovation but maintains resource control. (LBH)

In college and university administration, overhead costs are often charged to programs indiscriminately, whereas the support activities that underlie those costs remain unanalyzed. It is time for institutions to decrease ineffective use of resources. Activity-based management attributes costs more accurately and can improve efficiency. (MSE)

In this paper, a companion piece to "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools" (ED544382), the authors analyze small high school spending in three urban districts--Baltimore City, Boston, and Chicago--to understand whether it is higher than in larger schools; if it is, why it is different; and the policy…

We measure the distributive justice preferences of students within eight departments in the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. We use the Finnish government's annual budget and its specific appropriations as a proxy to measure the students' underlying preferences. We test whether the type of studies of the respondents…