Getting the Real Story on School Resources: Understanding School Budgets

Getting the Real Story on School Resources:Understanding School Budgets Kacey Guin Center on Reinventing Public Education University of Washington

The new focus of education policy: Schools • Accountability and testing • Leadership • School-based reform • Decentralized decision making • Choice • Need: Transparency in school finance data.

Why we need transparency • Resources are not distributed equitably among schools within districts. • Patterns across types of schools are particularly troubling. • District leaders don’t necessarily know where their dollars are going. • Budgeting practices keep inexperienced teachers in highest poverty schools.

Variation in Total Dollars per Pupil Among Cincinnati Schools $10,000 $8,000 $6,000 Per Pupil Expenditures $4,000 $2,000 $0 Cincinnati Schools Resources are not distributed equitably among schools within districts.

Patterns across types of schools are particularly troubling. • Two high poverty schools in Denver--one receives $2900 more per student than the other (amounting to an extra $900,000). • Teachers in Seattle’s “Northeast zone” earn over $41,000 on average. In the “Southeast zone” they earn less than $38,000. • In Houston, the poorest schools receive 4% more than the average; the wealthiest schools receive 14% more.

District leaders don’t necessarily know where their dollars are going. • Cincinnati budget reform (circa 1999) • wanted equitable distribute of resources to schools • believed middle schools were under-funded • realized middle schools received 30% more on average than elementary and high school • Seattle budget cuts (circa 2004) • wanted to close smaller high schools because of cost • discovered some small schools cost more, however, some small schools cost less than the large schools

Budgeting practices keep inexperiencedteachers in highest poverty schools.

Total Budget Schools Leadership Non-Ed Ops Central Budgets School Budgets A B C D

Total Budget Schools Leadership Non-Ed Ops Central Budgets School Budgets Adjust for real salaries A B C D

On paper…

In reality… Real teacher salaries don’t show up in schools’ budget reports.

Total Budget Central Programs/ Departments Schools Leadership Non-Ed Ops Central Budgets School Budgets A B C D

Total Budget Central Programs/ Departments Schools Leadership Non-Ed Ops Central Budgets School Budgets School budgets and real dollar salary adjustments A B C D

Goal for today Learn how to examine school budgets in order to compare spending levels across schools with different student needs. • Investigate differences in school budgets. • Investigate the impact of differences in real teacher salaries from school to school.

Step 1: Calculate district-wide average expenditure for each type of student need Per Pupil Bilingual Education average ($850) is the sum of all bilingual education expenditures in the district divided by the district’s number of bilingual education student.

Step 2: Calculate predicted expenditures for each school based on its students’ needs. Calculated by multiplying the number of bilingual education students attending Madison (46 students) times the district’s average expense for each of these students ($850).

Step 3: Compare predicted expenditures to actual expenditures. Funding level is the ratio of actual expenditures to predicted expenditures.

Step 4: Compare funding across schools. Madison gets an extra 27%. Sunnyside gets 15% less.

Step 5: Calculate salary adjustment.

Step 6: Make the adjustment for real salaries. Adjusting for real dollar teacher salaries uncovers greater inequities.

Step 7: Look for patterns in data • Trends across elementary, middle, and high schools • Funding patterns across geographical areas • Spending in different type of schools • Magnet, alternative, and special programs • High-Poverty and Low-Poverty • High-Minority and Low-Minority

Example of patterns

What data do you need? To do the analysis of school budgets: • Individual School Budgets • Expenditure breakdown by costs to address student needs (bilingual ed. expenditures, poverty expenditures, non-categorical expenditures, etc.) • School enrollment by student type To make the adjustment for real salaries: • Real salaries of each teacher in school OR • School reported average salaries and the number of teachers in school

Policy Implications • Without equal resources, schools can’t be expected to achieve equal outcomes. • Without knowing where resources are distributed, districts cannot strategically allocate resources. • The current budget practice of salary averaging contributes to the inequitable distribution of teachers.

Preparing for District Response Why doesn’t the district use real teacher salaries in budgeting? “ The practice of salary averaging allows schools the flexibility to hire the teachers they want.” Why do certain schools benefit from add-on programs? “ This particular program has been a staple of the school for 10 years. It cannot be removed.” Why hasn’t the district addressed the funding inequities between schools? “ If we remove resources from schools, parents will protest and students may flee.”

Relevant reform efforts • Cincinnati, Seattle & Houston use weighted student formulas • fail to address differences in teacher salaries • harder to implement when money is tight • Oakland implementing “results-based” budgeting • student-based budgeting • use real dollar teacher salaries

Contact Information University of Washington Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs Center on Reinventing Pubic Education 2101 N. 34th Street, Suite 195 Seattle, WA 98103 www.crpe.org Kacey Guin guin@u.washington.edu School Communities that Work Online Tool: http://www.schoolcommunities.org/resources/APRD

Getting the Real Story on School Resources: Understanding School Budgets