Marguerite Roza
Published June 24, 2019 in Education Next
Raise the topic of education finance and most jump to the revenue side of the equation: Is there enough money? Are districts funded equitably? But the spending side is equally important and is about to get much more attention, thanks to a provision in the Every Student Succeeds Act that will make school-level spending data public.
District and school leaders are largely unprepared to engage on the issues that this new financial transparency will raise: equity, spending trade-offs, and the link between money and outcomes. Most have had little training in strategic school spending and how to do the most for students with scarce resources.
This article shines a light on the pressing need to better support district and school leaders in their work on the spending side of the equation.
