Most of us have experienced the cutting of school funds along with the demand for greater student success. How can we best meet these challenges? Firstly, it is crucial to know how much money is actually being spent. For the purposes of this blog, we will focus just on the classroom.

Do you know how much that AP math course costs? What about music lessons or remedial English? Must some classes remain small while others can be increased in size? How can one evaluate the value of their school dollars?

One presentation is to calculate teacher salary to class attendance. For instance, an AP science class might require a higher paid teacher but only has half the amount of students attending this class as compared to an English literature course with a lower paid teacher and a greater amount of students attending. Is it possible to rearrange the schedule or class structure in order to save on the per-student expenditure of a course? If your state has imposed a limit on the size of AP classes, is their something that can be done to lift this restriction?

Sometimes, it might be found, that certain courses have a large overhead with limited popularity. Making changes to reduce costs in one place can free up funds for a higher priority area. For example, let’s say that the art and music classes are costly for your school. Perhaps a local community center is providing similar courses at a reduced rate. It might be cost effective to bus students over to this center rather than continue to provide these classes on the school campus.

Another option, which can be very tricky especially in lower income areas, is to have schools provide basic classes and ask parents to pay for extra services not deemed part of these curricular areas. Parents can be asked to pay for art supplies, language teachers, etc. A further possibility is to create school fund raisers to subsidize those subjects which are putting a strain on the school budget.

In one study, teachers were asked their opinion of where they felt budgets could be cut without impacting student learning. Some of their answers were quite telling.

Many felt that there is much too much administrative overheard. They felt that too many administrators were getting fat salaries and doing little to truly improve education. In a similar vein, it was believed that the Federal government need not be involved in education. Rather, it is the responsibility of the state and local governments to assure quality education.

Other suggestions were as follows:

• Require and check documentation which proves that families are entitled to the free lunch program. Apparently, many students from well off families are receiving free lunches because there is little checks and balances of this program.
• Remove unnecessary overhead. Besides quality teachers, maintenance staff, good principals and responsible secretaries and cafeteria crews, most other staff is unnecessary, especially the managerial staff.
• If teachers are of a high caliber, using funds to purchase “another program” is wasted money. Teachers should be able to create their own programs for successful learning.
• For middle and high schools, have a three day weekend. Use a “telecommute” system where classes are taught on-line for the 5^th school day. Less commuting and in-house classes would mean less maintenance costs.
• Share services and supply ordering as well as books with other school districts. Buying in greater bulk reduces cost. In addition, reduce utility cost by assuring that the school building is well insulated and has automatic light switches.

What do you think of the suggestions in this blog? What actions has your school taken to reduce costs and meet shrinking budgets which have positively and even negatively affected the school atmosphere or quality of teaching? We’d love to hear from you.