Budgetary concerns have become a major issue for legislative bodies around the world. COVID- has exacerbated many of these concerns as states must now contend with lower revenue projections coupled with higher cash expenditures. School budgets are not immune to this occurrence and in fact, suffer more so because of it, as will be detailed below. The current New York school district budget is $168,142,155 which is an increase of roughly 2.37% from last year. The budget increase is in line with historical inflation projects of 2% (although inflation projections have changed in recent months due to supply chain disruptions internationally). The budget is supported primarily with tax levies and state aid. The budget itself is comprised of three components with include Administrative, Instructional Programs, and Capital (Abernethy, 1999). Administrative capital is heavily related to teachers, and their corresponding salaries and benefits. It also includes other workers such a grounds keeper, janitors, security and so forth. The Instructional Program sections includes expenditures of school programming such as after-school programs, extra-curricular activities, books, desks, lunch programs, and more. Finally, the capital section includes capital projects designed to improve schools and the surrounding infrastructure. The bulk of the budget, or $126.5M as spent on instructional programing. The remaining budget amounts were spent on Capital improvement at $24.3M and Administrative at $17.2M.
When reviewing the 2021-22 budget and comparing to 2020-21, the primary catalyst was COVID-19 and its implications for instruction within the school district. The 2021-22 budget looks to take a conservative stance related to COVID-19 and has allocated a large portion of its budget to mitigation efforts as compared to 2020-21. This budget allocation appears justified for a number of reasons. First, New York, was the first epicenter for the pandemic as it relates to the United States, which may be informing the conservative nature of the budget allocations. During the beginning of the pandemic, New York accounted for most of the COVID-19 cases and a majority of the deaths in the United States. In addition, air travel and tourism created substantial risks for school ages children and parents with New York relative to other areas of the world. Travel and tourism are particularly dangerous as different variations of the virus could...
Finally, structural considerations are also the reason for the increased COVID-19 expenditures within the budget. As New York is very compact, social distancing efforts are very difficult to maintain. In certain instances, social distancing is impossible given the close proximity and small living spaces that are common in New York. This has very large implications for schools as they are unable to open due to confluence of the influences related to the health of both the child and the parent. As children could not attend schools, parents could therefore not go to work and leave their younger children uncared for.The budget appears to recognize these structural issues related to New York and is thus looking to mitigate their potential influence on schools within the district. Specifically, the budget calls for a $200,000 increase in custodial salaries (1620-166-00-48-00) as compared to last years budget. These custodial services will be heavily involved in disinfection and cleaning efforts within the schools. This is particularly important to provide the spread of COVID-19 within the school, while also protecting children from contracting the virus. In addition, the budget calls for an addition $50,000 for Custodial supplies (1620-511-00-48-00) as compared to last year. Per the budget, these supplies will be directly related to items such as disinfecting sprays, garbage bags, toiletries, wipes, tissues, and other cleaning supplies. In addition, health science supplies (2815-554-00-CO-00) saw a nearly $500,000 increase in its budget relative to expenditures last year primarily for the same reasons mentioned above.
Maintenance line items also saw a very robust increase in the 2021-22 budget as compared to the 2020-21 budget. Again, much like the custodial services, much of the increase was attributable to line items designed to keep both parents and teachers safe within an COVID-19 environment. The largest increase occurred with the Building and Furniture Repair Supplies line items (1621-515-00-48-00 )which saw a $250,000 increase as compared to last year. COVID-19 has been known to remain on surfaces, cracks, and commonly used areas. This allocation appears to address that by allowing maintenance staff to properly replace or repair item that are believed to be at risk for both children, parents and teachers.
Security guard salaries (1622-166-00-00-00 ) also saw a $150K increase as compared to last years budget. This is need to protect both students and staff during uncertain economic times. Although the economy has improved dramatically since the depths of the financial crisis, many Americans are still unemployed, which often leads to…
References
1. Abernethy, M. A. and P. Brownell. 1999. The role of budgets in organizations facing strategic change: An exploratory study. Accounting, Organizations and Society 24(3): 189-2042. Andersen, A. V. 1983. Budgeting For Schools. National Association of Accountants.
3. Aranya, N. 1990. Budget instrumentality, participation and organizational effectiveness. Journal of Management Accounting Research (2): 67-774. Fakharzadeh, T. (2016), “Budgeting and Accounting in OECD Education Systems: A Literature Review”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 128, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1787/5jm3xgsz03kh-en5. Jackson, C. K., Johnson, R. C., & Persico, C. (2015). The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance reforms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(1), 157-218. https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/131/1/157/2461148
6. New York State Division of the Budget (2021). New York State School Funding Transparency Form. https://www.budget.ny.gov/schoolFunding/index.html
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The trial lasted seven months and Justice Leland Degrasse rendered his decision, 719 N.Y.S.2d 475 on January 10, 2001, in favor of plaintiffs and ordered the state to ensure that all public schools provide the opportunity for a sound basic education to their students." (Hunter, 2004) Entered, as part of this decision was a "costing-out study as the threshold task in developing a new school funding system." (Hunter, 2004)
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