School Budgeting
Name
Institution
Budgeting Process
Preparing and developing a school budget is a continuous process. The ABC school budget preparation for the fiscal year 2020-2021 began after the final budget for the year 2019-2020 was adopted. The school predicted budget for the year 2020-2021 is $ 110,218 exclusive of transfers between funds. The single largest item in the school district fund is salary at 31% of the general funds (Anon, 2020). Salary is the amount paid to employees in part-time, full-time and substitute positions. The items that have created a huge problem in the budget are services for students with disability. Since the year 2011, the federal government greatly reduced the funds allocated to Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). As a result, the general funds have had to fund more positions which were previously funded by this entitlement. For instance, in the fiscal year 2019-2020, the school used around $9, 000 of the general funds to pay for services which were previously funded by IDEA $ 10, 000 is budgeted for the same benefits for the year 2020-2021 (Anon, 2020).
When purchasing positions within the budget, the school board splits positions within the budget. The splitting is done because there are various programs which are primarily supposed to be funded by the federal government. However, in most cases, the funds allocated by the government are not adequate to run these programs. The general fund is used to supplement the funds allocated to these programs by the federal or state governments. An excellent example of such an item is the school lunch programs (Anon, 2020).
After we submit the budget to the school district, the school Board of XYZ County scrutinizes the budget and agrees to pay a certain percentage of the budget depending on the funds that they have allocated for each school in the district. Internal accounts funds takes care of the deficit. The general fund contains all the school’s expenditures and revenues. However, some expenditures and revenues can be placed in other accounts for legal reasons. The general funds consist of transactions relating the general schools’ operations ranging from salaries of both teaching and non-teaching staff, professional services, utilities, instructional materials and supplies (Anon, 2020).
The school has an internal accounts fund known as the Internal Service fund whose primaryn role is to finance risk financing for activities in the school. Some of the worker’s compensation programs from this internal account include general liability, health care plan benefits, group dental care, and automobile transportation liability. This internal account gets its funds from four central sources: excesses from the general funds, school money generating programs such as sports, donations, school fees, loans and property taxes (Anon, 2020).
Donations are a great source of funding for the particular school funds account. Donations are received by the school accountant. A two party signature is required for each withdrawal or deposit to this account. The accountant is also required to maintain original copies of each deposit made into the account (Anon, 2020).
In cases where the school need to fund a program that is not accommodated by the general funds’ account, the principal organizes fundraisers to raise the money for the particular program. When setting up a fundraiser, a committee which is given the role of planning is set up months before the set a date for the fundraiser. The team also develops the timelines for the fundraiser. It also determines the goals of the fundraiser and the type of the fundraiser. They also determine how the money would be collected and consolidated into a single account. The principal has to approve the fundraiser plan before it is executed. The money deposited in the internal account is used to fund programs that are not include in the general funds and arising issues regarding the students welfare. However, approval of the principal is sought before any money from this account can be utilized. If the money raised in a certain year remains, it is carried forward to the next year. The school has developed its internal account procedural manual which is followed by the school accountant and school principal. Auditing of the school fund accounts is done once every year. This audit includes the audit of the general fund account and the internal accounts with the aim of ensuring that there is no misappropriation of funds. In case an error has occurred, the principal of the school is the main signatory of any spending and revenue generation is held accountable. In case of embezzlement or misappropriation of funds, the principal receives disciplinary action depending on the magnitude of the crime committed.
FTE Survey
A FTE is a term that is applied in education institution when making financial plans for staff costs. FTE is the aggregate sum of full time equivalent employees. The FTE surveys in schools in the state of Florida consist of the total number of FTE of both teaching and non-teaching staff. The FTE surveys are five one carried is carried out in July covering the start of the financial year to the start of school year. The second survey is carried out in October covering the first quarter of the 180-day school year. Subsequently, the third survey takes place in February covering the second quarter. Subsequently, the fourth survey takes place in June covering the time between the ends of 180-day school year and beginning of a new fiscal year (Anon 2020). The last survey takes place in August and involves reporting of comprehensive data of the previous school year. The state utilizes the data submitted on FTE in estimating the amount of funding that is needed for each school district and each and subsequently each school in the school districts. The principals of the schools in Florida are expected to store FTE survey information for each fiscal year which can be retrieved for audit. ABC school has had one FTE audit in the previous financial year.
Research
In florida, the government applies weighted components in making several calculations aimed at ensuring funding uniformity among student and school districts. The formula adopted is student based and applies the full time equivalent student enrolment as the fundamental foundation for allocation of funds. The 67 school districts in Florida are allocated funds using the following formula:
Source: Anon (2020).
Program
Cost Factor
Basic
101: 1st 2nd, 3rd and kindergarten
1.120
102: 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade
1.000
103: 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade
1.005
exceptional students education
111: grade 1, 2, 3 and kindergarten
1.12
112: grade 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8
1.00
113: grade 9, 10, 11 and 12
1.005
254: 4th support level
255: 5th support level
Language
English for non-English speakers
1.181
Career education
9th to 12th grade career education
1.005
Source: Anon (2020).
The taxes from which ABC school is funded from include property tax, voted millage and local sales tax, local ad valorem taxes and the state license tax.an exercise tax is levied based on a fixed amount of something a good example is the property tax in Florida school districts. Ad valorem tax on the other hand is tax is based on the value of something and could be given in form of percentage such as percentage of profit from the sale of retail goods.
Education Legislation
The involved of the federal government in aiding education can be traced back to the era before the adoption of the US constitution. The first two Northwest ordinances were created in 1785 which was just two years after the revolutionary war came to an end. The first ordinance reserved a 1/36th of the land to building of public schools. This was followed by a second ordinance in 1787 which reaffirmed the first law (Hunt, 2015).
The involved of the federal government in aiding education has been challenged in court severally. A good example is the 1973 ruling in the case of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriquez that said that the aiding of education is not the job of the federal government. It was concluded that education is not a basic right as per the U.S. constitution. The formulators of the constitution had left this duty to the states to decide whether to provide education or not and at what level of quality. Moreover, the U.S. constitution does not directly give the congress the power to form legislation that relate to education. As such, the laws that the congress passes are enacted under the spending clause of the constitution which gives the congressmen the authority to tax and expend funds for the general wellbeing (Carmel, Ulrich, Benner & Baffour, 2018).
However, there have also been some court rulings that have advocated for equality of education funding per student across district. One such example is the California Supreme Court ruling of 1971 which termed the system of schools being funded by local property tax with limited funding from the federal government and state government as unconstitutional. Since the tax rates and property value levied across the states differed, there existed a huge disparity in per student funding across the districts. The ruling ordered that the states should equalize their education aid in all the district, this ruling was followed by proposition 98 of 1988 which was approved by voters and required the states to set aside around 40% of their general funds to fund education every year (Hunt, 2015).
As has been discussed above, it can be observed that there exists several procedures and legislation that promote for equality on the amount of funding dedicated to each pupil in the different school districts. However, disparities in per student funding could arise from internal accounts whose sources include donations, fundraising and school fees. For instance, schools with strong sports team especially at college level end up having a lot of money in their internal accounts generated from the sale of tickets, donations and fundraiser which put the learners at an advantage compared to other schools with weak athletic teams.
References
Anonymous. (2020). 2019-20 Funding For Florida School Districts. Florida department of Education, 1-43 http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7507/urlt/Fefpdist.pdf
Anonymous. (2020). Florida State Reporting FTE Manual. Skyward Documentation – Florida FTE, 5(20), 1-21.
Carmel M., Ulrich B., Benner, M. & Baffour, P. (2018). A Quality Approach to School Funding Lessons Learned From School Finance Litigation.Center for American Progress, 11(13), 1-31. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2018/11/13/460397/quality-approach-school-funding/
Hunt, T. C. (2015). Encyclopedia of educational reform and dissent: Volume 1. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.