Educational funding discussion question

U05d2 Budgeting accountabilityJackson is the capital city of Mississippi, USA. Jackson public school district are public schools in Jackson. The 21st century program was created by legislative action. The primary goal of the 21st CCLC Program is to supplement the education of children who attend low-performing schools and live in high-poverty areas with academic, artistic and cultural enrichment during out-of-school time hours, so that they may attain the skills necessary to meet state core curriculum content standards. In addition, the centers must offer literacy and other educational services to the families of the participating students (State of new Jersey 2012). The Jackson public school benefits from this program through the delivery of quality education through the association of parents and community. This is the mission of Jackson public school. The visions of Jackson public schools are realized through the 21st century program. The district ensures that the money is spent ethically by auditing the expenditures of the schools. The program contributes $61,495,595 to the budget of the district (Jackson public schools 2013).

U06D1school based fundingI support centralized funding and budgeting of the schools. When there is centralized funding, the budgeting of each student is done from the state level. Each student is planned for and budgeted by the state. The spending per student is highly increased (Paul N; Susanna Loeb1997).

U06D2 improving schoolsThe only way to improve the performance in public schools is to increase the resources and funding of the schools. Half of the schools in the states of America are funded by the government. Researches show that an increase in the funding improves the performance (Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berliner 2013). The incentives also increase the performances of these public schools (Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berliner 2013).

U07d1 Standard classification of expenditures and revenuesBoth of these revenues come from the local, state and federal. State resources provide the biggest percentage of the revenues. The biggest percentage of expenditure is on the payment of employees. The salaries take more than 50% of the expenditure in the local schools. Capital outlay is the least expenditure (Jackson public schools 2013).

U07d2 Audit processes

The process of auditing in the Jackson public schools is done through the analysis of financial statements and observing the cash flows. The budget is also examined to determine whether the company overspent or under spent. Jackson public schools have not used categorical funding since it has deficit in its budget. The Jackson public schools operate on a deficit according to the audit report (Jackson Public school 2013)

U08d1 Non-public school fundingA case was presented to the Supreme Court by Meek v. Pittenger in 1975. The claims were that the private schools were benefiting from the public funds (Justia 1975). The private schools were benefiting from the money from the common wealth to buy equipments in the schools and also as loans. The court ruled that the money was not supposed to be used by the private schools since most of this money was channeled to religious practices. The court rules that the only money that should be channeled to private schools would be for books which benefit the students directly. This increased the money that was funded to the public schools. It is appropriate for the public funds to support the private schools. The students are the beneficially of these funds in the long run and there should be no inequality in sharing the public funds. The students in private schools are a part of the public who should enjoy the funds. My definition of appropriateness in this scenario means that there should be equal division of resources. Funding of private schools has reduced the expenditure per student which in turn reduces the performance of the students. One of the alternatives to solve the education funding controversies would be to stop completely funding the private schools. This would seem a fair move to the public since there is no risk of their money being misdirected to other projects. Another alternative would be a strict follow up of the money disbursed to these private institutions.

U08d2 Non-public School funding criteriaAll the funding criteria should not be used in funding nonpublic schools. The nonpublic schools charge a high fee than the public schools. Schools with nonperforming students in nonpublic schools should receive title 1 funds.(State of new Jersey 2013).This high fee should be used in the maintenance of the school and the student’s needs in these schools

U09d1 Community fundraisingMy past experience with community fundraising on schools is that the success of the student or the schools contributes a lot to the success of the fundraising. In preparing a successful community fundraising, I would ensure that all most of the people in the community are aware of the fundraising. This awareness increases the turn up of the people thus increasing the funds. I witnessed a fundraising that failed. It never met it targets and even went ahead to make losses. It failed because they set the limits of the funds an individual was supposed to contribute. A change of this can lead to a better contribution to the fundraising.

U09d2 the impact of facilities on student’s achievement

The facilities available for the students and in school affect the performance of the student. A school that avails all the necessary or most of the facilities have students who scores highly. The environment of the students should be conducive for their learning to be conducive (California, Department of Education 2013)

U10d1 impact of NCLB and IDEAMy school did well in the AYP. The criteria that was used to determine this was the rate of graduation of the students (Texas Education Agency 2013). The students that graduated were evaluated and a percentage taken against those that failed. The NCLB and IDEA have affected the allocation of resources per district. It is harder to evaluate the amount of funds that should be allocated to each school. NCLB has affected the resource distribution in my school. It has reduced the amount of facility per student. Capital in the Jackson public school may be of any value and have a variable time of use. The basic criteria used to identify capital are the facts that the item belongs to the schools and they are used for the benefits of the school.

References

Justia (1975) US Supreme Court appeal from the United States district court for the eastern district of pennsyvania available at http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/421/349/case.html (accessed on 13/05/2013)

State of New Jersey (2013) Department of Education Title 1 available at http://www.state.nj.us/education/title1/leg/policy/equitable.shtml (accessed on 13/05/2013)

California (2013) Department of Education The impacts of school facilities available at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/fa/sf/achievementppt.asp (accessed on 13/05/2013)

Texas Education Agency (2013) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/ayp/ (accessed on 13/05/2013)

Plante & Morran 2009 Jackson Public schools financial report with supplemental information pg 1-10), 750 Trade Way center, Portage MI

Courant P. N& Loeb S (1997) Centralization of school in Michigan Available at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/34833/6_ftp.pdf?sequence=1 (Accessed on 13/05/2013)

State of New Jersey (2012) Department of education 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program (21st CCLC) – Overview available at http://www.state.nj.us/education/21cclc/ (accessed on 13/05/2013)

Jackson Public Schools (26April 2013) Projected budget shortfall available at http://www.jpsk12.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=LSvGsMPSw%2b8%3d&tabid=232 (accessed on 13/05/2013)

Biddle B.J and Berliner D.C(May 2002) Education leadership A Research Synthesis / Unequal School Funding in the United States Vol 59 number 8 pages 48-59 n.d

Jackson public schools 2005 JBS beliefs, goals and visions and mission available at http://www.jackson.k12.ms.us/content.aspx?url=/page/jpsgoals (Accessed on 13/05/2013).