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Strategic Budgeting in Public Schools: Managing the Price of Quality
Audrey G. Taylor,
Western Washington University
Tamara K Kowalczyk, Appalachian State University
ABSTRACT. When state budget cuts are prevalent, research on alternative budgeting techniques is warranted. The emphasis of this project is on public school administrations, where improvements in budgetary processes could help align system goals with reduced levels of funding. A budgeting technique, called Strategic Budgeting (SB), emphasizing information symmetry and mutual monitoring, is investigated in a non-profit setting by comparing it to a traditional budgeting method. The experiment validated the effect of reduced spending previously discovered in a corporate setting. Results indicated an overall cost savings with SB of almost 25 percent. Public school administrators made spending decisions in a hypothetical 3-year task and provided comments to justify their decisions. From those comments several patterns emerged, and along with anecdotal evidence from a case study on using SB in an actual school system, provide the basis for a discussion on implementation issues.
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