Brookings Papers on Education Policy

Roza, Marguerite.
Hill, Paul Thomas, 1943-
How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools to Fail
Brookings Papers on Education Policy - 2004, pp. 201-218

Brookings Institution Press

Marguerite Roza and Paul Thomas Hill - How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools to Fail - Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004 Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004 (2004) 201-218 How Within-District Spending Inequities Help Some Schools to Fail Marguerite Roza and Paul T. Hill [Comments] School district budgets are in the news. In the past year, superintendents in Seattle, Rochester, and Baltimore have all left their jobs under pressure because of unexpected deficits, and as of summer 2003 Oakland's superintendent was in similar trouble because of a $50 million deficit for the year. The bad economy is partly responsible. These and thousands of other districts have suffered simultaneous declines in local, state, and federal revenue. But in these cases, district actions made the worst of a tough situation. Instead of adjusting expenditures as revenues declined, these districts continued spending, with some plugging their budgets (that is, inventing revenues to make the books look balanced) in the hope that things would work out in the end. Such plugging is neither new nor limited to Seattle, Rochester, Baltimore, and Oakland. As a former superintendent involved in an earlier financial meltdown elsewhere explained to one of us, "You can always find money if you are committed to doing something. You just spend it now and cover it next year when the budget goes up." Another justification for budget plugging is uncertainty. Few...