Discusses customer service in libraries and the tendency to rely on past experiences rather than meet the needs and opportunities in today's changing electronic environment. Suggests that libraries focus on the users, create a climate that supports change, continuously survey the environment, and redirect resources. (LRW)

Ideally, school budgeting should be divided into distinct rational steps: educating staff about budgets, determining the building allocation, setting education goals for upcoming years, determining fixed costs and sharing this information, making requests public, building a cash reserve, and determining and publishing final allocations. (MLH)

Using case study findings from two United Kingdom universities, explores the contention that the introduction of a devolved, formula-based system of resource allocation reduces the influence of strong forces within the institution. Found that micro-political activity and sub-unit power remain significant influences within such systems. Offers…

Discusses the competition for public resources that will be waged between the nation's older population and U.S. public schools in the coming decades. Also examined is the relationship between retirees and the schools in their community. (GR)

Defines the criteria of economy, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity for making choices about resource allocation, locates them within a conceptual framework, and examines reasons for the increasing interest in them. Explains and illustrates the evaluation methods of cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, and cost-consequences analyses.…

Used meta-analysis of 60 studies to investigate the direction and magnitude of the relationships between a variety of school inputs and student achievement. Analysis finds a broad range of resources to be positively related to academic achievement and further suggests that moderate increases in spending may be associated with significant increases…

The British White Paper "Education and Skills: the Future of Higher Education" (2003) proposes overhauling the way the UK funds its higher education systems. (From a formal and legal point of view, following the creation of separate Parliaments for Wales and Scotland in 1996 with responsibility amongst other areas for higher education,…

In the debate about whether the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is "fully funded," 6 different definitions are used. The purpose of this article is to explore the implications of using each of these very different definitions. The 1st definition is that the law is fully funded because of large percentage increases in the federal appropriation.…

Grade retention and delayed entry to kindergarten are two of the major causes of overaged students in middle school. While data is often difficult to obtain, the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 reported that 20 percent of all eighth graders had repeated at least one grade (Wheelock 1998). In South Carolina, where students are…

States are facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Yet, despite these deficiencies in funds, state governors must assure their constituents that dangerous criminals will still be arrested, adjudicated and imprisoned. Experience shows that the best way to ensure public safety efficiently over the long run is to spend less on…

This article discusses how one small liberal arts school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, devised a strategic plan to improve faculty salaries by linking improvements in salaries to improvements in college resources. The benefits of the salary plan went beyond improving salaries. First, the plan dictated that faculty salaries be determined at…

We identify three aspects of management particularly crucial in the environment of globalization: the formulation of international strategy; entry into foreign markets; and resource allocation. We advocate the board game Go as an aid to learning management amidst globalization. Our advocacy is based on drawing links between Go and each of the…

In the Web site of Students for Academic Freedom (SAF), an organization committed to fighting political indoctrination in higher education, a complaint center allows students to report instances of ideological bias. With SAF chapters at more than 180 campuses nationwide and legislation about students' academic freedom under discussion in several…

All around the world, the importance of research undertaken within universities and other institutions of higher education is widely recognised by governments, industries and diverse stakeholders. Indeed, it is likely that the contribution of higher education in the generation of new ideas and knowledge, and as an economic driver, has never been…

The authors outline an innovative activity that helps teachers make the abstract concepts of scarcity and allocation concrete in the K-12 classroom. Students evaluate the scarcity of chocolate and often determine, incorrectly, that the candy is not scarce because there is enough for each student to have one piece. After students reveal their…