Money & Schools by David C. Thompson, Faith E. Crampton, R. Craig Wood (review)

Four years have passed since publication of the fourth edition of Money & Schools, and during that time period, the United States has experienced an economic recession of historic proportions whose fiscal effects are still being felt by schools and districts across the nation. In this challenging environment, it is critical that school leaders understand how their stewardship of limited financial resources directly impacts the quality of education for all students. Given this context, the fifth edition of Money & Schools is a critical resource for both aspiring and experienced administrators. This book review first explores key features that continue in the fifth edition, and then describes new additions that strengthen an already excellent textbook for the preparation of school leaders.

The fifth edition is organized into three major sections and 13 chapters. Part I presents the reader with an overview of broad concepts related to money and schools, including chapters on schools, values, and money; a policy perspective on funding schools; and basic funding structures. These provide educational leadership students with a solid content base for Part II, “Operationalizing School Money,” which covers school funds accountability, legal liability, and risk management as well as the professional and ethical conduct required of school leaders with regard to these areas. Part II also contains a total of six chapters focusing on budgeting, beginning with a chapter on budget planning followed by chapters on budgeting for personnel, instruction, student activities, school infrastructure, and student transportation and food services. My students appreciate this exhaustive treatment of budgeting/planning. The detailed descriptions of the types of budgeting schools and districts engage in, along with real-life examples, build their confidence in their ability to plan, build, and execute an actual budget.

The third and final Part III offers a view of the future, first by revisiting the theme of site-based leadership and then by offering insights into its continuing applicability to the future academic and financial success of public schools in the U.S. The analysis in the final chapter, “Future Trends for School Funding,” is particularly impressive as it draws upon the combined expertise of the authors in the areas of education finance research, policy, and practice. This part of the chapter always elicits spirited student discussions about how these trends compare and contrast with their own experiences and perceptions.

This newest edition continues Money & Schools’ hallmark themes of site-based leadership, equality of educational opportunity for all students, and artful blending of theory, research, and best practice. At the same time, the conversational tone and language used throughout the book make it particularly accessible to aspiring educational leaders. This fifth edition continues a number of important pedagogical tools, such as beginning each chapter with a series of questions that focuses students on the key concepts and issues addressed. These questions can also be used for review and self-testing by students after reading the chapter. Student activities like case studies and point-counterpoint exercises that were introduced in the fourth edition are again tailored to enable students individually or in groups to apply knowledge gained from reading the chapter. I have also found that the case studies work well in discussion group components in an online format.

It is important to emphasize that the fifth edition is not merely an update of the previous edition.¹ I particularly like the addition of visually appealing graphs and charts that serve to translate complex information presented in the text into an easy to understand format. Also new to this edition are materials like budget worksheets that are downloadable from the publisher’s web site. These new features provide students with important hands-on experiences in developing a budget. Likewise, the end-of-chapter follow-up activities have been replaced with portfolio exercises that can be used not only as student activities/projects but also for creation of artifacts aligned with national educational leadership standards. Finally, I appreciate the revamping of the recommended readings and web resources sections...