A Cost Allocation Model For Shared District Resources: A Means For Comparing Spending Across Schools. CRPE Working Paper 2004-4

Center on Reinventing Public Education. University of Washington Bothell Box 358200, Seattle, WA 98195. Tel: 206-685-2214; Fax: 206-221-7402; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.crpe.org

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23

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Middle Schools; Educational Finance; Budgeting; Resource Allocation; School District Spending; School Districts; Shared Resources and Services; Models

Recent policy changes at the state and federal levels have made schools the focus of accountability. However, under current district budgeting practices, it is difficult to assess how resources are distributed between schools and whether every school is afforded the same opportunity to meet its educational goals. This paper addresses one key driver of spending variation between schools: shared district resources. Shared resources, including programs, staff, and funds managed by the central office for the purpose of educating children, are not reported in school budgets despite the fact that they can represent a substantial portion of the total resources which benefit any one school. To capture these funds and gain an understanding of how they are distributed, a cost allocation for shared district resources is presented here. Application of the model to Denver Public Schools increased reported school-level spending by one-third. A spending comparison of two middle schools demonstrates how spending from shared resources varies significantly from one school to another. As a result, simple measures of spending, such as school-based resources, often miss important sources of spending variation. Contains three tables, and seven end notes.

Author

14

2005

ED485884