Essay On School Budgets

Our political leaders struggle to understand the impact they have on the policies they put into place to improve public education. We see mandates that are unfunded and have a significant impact on a school district’s budget. Special education continues to be an area rich with policy and yet additional dollars are not included in the decisions made for implementation. Title one funding is an area that falls into a blurry area of policy for school districts. In our district, we have policies for fiscal responsibility in our spending procedures and yearly audits to be sure we are spending our money in a proper way.

The federal government has attempted to slice into the Department of Education’s budget since it was established in 1979. The department was originally founded in 1867, but soon became demoted since the government was afraid it would have too much power. “In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding. By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion. As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion” (An overview of the U.S. Department of Education, 2010). To provide some comparable insight, in 2013 the Department of Defense’s budget of $663.8 billion (U.S. Department of Defense, 2009).

Since the early millennium there has been a call for public school reform. Whether it was a reformation in school funding and where to spend it, there was a need for it nationally. How would it be determined which school district would get the majority of the funding or would it come down to equal funding for all districts. States determine the amount of spending due to many factors such population, the size of the class and also the demographics. According to Mike Maciag on Governing.com, New York is spending more than $20,000 per student each year, counting teacher salaries, but Idaho and Ohio spend about one-third as much. Teachers with additional education and experience see better results in smaller states with less spending per student than those who spent a major amount per student. Additional factors that are listed on governing.com that contribute to state education spending were employee benefits. Benefits include pensions, health insurance and tuition reimbursements (Maciag). Rural areas with a higher populations drive up costs for transportation. Florida’s spending is under the national average but is high in education

In 1991 the Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was replaced by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This law was passed to provide free and appropriate public education to every child with a disability. It requires that each child with a disability “have access to the program best suited to that child’s special needs which is as close as possible to a normal child’s educational program” (Martin, 1978). The Individualized education program (IEP) was developed to help provide a written record of students’ needs and procedures for each child that receives special education services. The IEP will list all the services to be provided, the student's performance level, academic performance, and

While school districts and school boards are the “voice” of the people in their particular districts, Arizona state agencies ultimately supply the majority of the funds and are also involved in administering the school funding system, collecting school fiscal and performance data, developing academic standards and model curricula, administering the state achievement tests, administering

This budget contains grants, reimbursements from schools, and payments that is from schools. $72.9 billion was set aside for public and higher education institutions. Most of the money is difficult to get if it is for a project that it was not intended for. Since the legislature cannot take money out of these two accounts when they would like, they just cut the budget. This is to give them more wiggle room in other areas that they would like to see the budget go to. There is a cycle that can be seen throughout the government. If the state wants money they need to spend what they have in order to receive federal

Limiting what revenues can be used for funding puts unnecessary strain on the budget and causes different areas that are significant to suffer. Alabama’s highly restrictive fiscal environment is a significant problem.

With hair brain schemes to eliminate state taxes and make more public school dollars available to private schools, anything close to adequate funding is not looking good for public schools. The only hope and prayer for K-12 education is for an outlier Republican legislator (not sure if such a creature exists) or a Democrat legislator who has yet to give up the ghost (such a creature is definitely mythical in Mississippi) embraces the wisdom behind the state purchasing massive blocks of Powerball tickets from Louisiana to bolster education funding. However, even if enough support could be garnered for such a plan, and the legislature designated lottery winnings go to K-12 public school education, everybody knows there is no guarantee the state Legislature would stand by such a

She informed me that the state aid formula is complicated to understand, yet she feels it is fair and comparable for all schools. The Arkansas

IDEA is divided into four parts, A-D. Part A covers and describes the layout of the IDEA Act. Part B covers assistance for children with disabilities ages 3-21. Part C covers assistance for children with disabilities from birth to age two. Part D includes activities to improve the education of children with disabilities. IDEA authorizes formula grants and discretionary grants to support the improvement and implementation of programs for special education.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal education law that ensures students with needs receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. The students of needs are identified by the specific school’s team of educational professionals, who develop an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) that is specially designed to meet the needs of the student, as well as being a tool to assess student progress. With the extent of disabilities, the IDEA does not demand equal results, but requires that students with disabilities merely benefit from their education (Essex, 2016). IDEA focuses on the identified specific needs of the students; and its services are utilized to address these needs.

Funding for special education students is, and historically, has always been, a complicated issue. Most people believe the federal government funds special education in the United States. “Understanding Special Education Funding” (2009), states that, on average, most states estimate that the federal government provides less than 15% of the money needed to fund special education services. This, in turn, leaves local school systems responsible for funding the remaining portion of special education services. This paper examines the history of special education laws and funding, the wide variance of funding that exists from state to state, and the problems created by a lack of funding.

Many people create a budget that allows them to follow the guidelines of things that need funding or to be paid. It does not matter whether it is a bill or a company, the budget allots the money for a documented need. Per U.S. Department of Education (2011), a budget sets forth priorities and levels of spending, ways of financing the spending, and a plan for managing the funds. Special education directors must be able to explain this process to fulfill the necessity of the budget within the schools that have special education programs or services. They must be able to understand theories, legislations and laws that come with spending money within the budget. This paper will discuss a future special education director’s understanding of

Growing up as a Kansas City, MO resident, I attended schools in the Kansas City school district. I attended J.S Chick African Centered school in elementary and I could always remember having two teachers to even out the student teacher ratio, so therefore we all were able to get individualized attention. Nowadays elementary school students aren't able to have this benefit. With all of the school shutdowns in the Kansas City, MO school district our children are being effected tremendously.

This places n emphasis on related services and special education, to meet the individual needs of the students. IDEA B are grant funds from the state that can be used to supplement a number of special education programs. These programs include Hospital Homebound, PPCD, Child Find, and more