How Much Does Spending Differ Among Alabama’s School Districts?
Last Thursday, we heard the preliminary findings from the school funding study commissioned by the State Board of Education. There is so much to say, it is hard to know where to begin. Over the coming...
View ArticleAbout Those School District Spending Numbers…
A whole lot of y’all looked at that table of per student spending by district I published on Monday. That’s a good thing. Hopefully you poked around and compared districts and did some thinking about...
View ArticleWe Don’t Need No Federal Dollars for Education! Or Do We?
So goes the battle cry. Particularly now that it’s election season. Candidates opine about the good old days before the United States Department of Education (USDOE) existed. Candidates enlighten us...
View ArticleIs It Still 2002 for Alabama’s Schoolchildren?
If you look at what we’re spending for Alabama’s children to be educated in our public schools, you might think it is. With renewed discussion about how Alabama is second only to Wisconsin in cuts to...
View ArticlePublic School Spending By Category
The numbers that are attached to public school spending are really big. It’s tough to get a real sense of how and for what reasons that money is spent. So let’s take a look at spending by category. The...
View ArticleBudget Hearing Dates: Help Wanted!
It’s that time again. Budget Hearing Season. FY15 budgets are due to the Alabama State Department of Education by September 16, 2014. Your help in gathering the dates and times of your school...
View ArticleBudget Hearing Dates….Uh, Kinda.
The idea of crowdsourcing budget hearing dates wasn’t as fruitful as I had hoped. My sincere appreciation to the five folks who took the time to find the dates and times of their district’s budget...
View ArticleWhat Are Your Board’s Budget Priorities?
Board of education members have three reallllly big tasks: (1) Hire the Superintendent (unless they serve in one of the 37 counties where the superintendent is elected), (2) Hire the Chief School...
View ArticleLocal School Tax Millage and the 10-Mill Local Match Chargeback Thing –...
Alabama has had a flurry of city school districts break off from county districts in recent years. Many more are waiting in the wings. Most cities seeking to form their own school systems cite the...
View ArticleHow Much Is Too Much to Keep in the District’s General Fund?
Public school funding trends seem to be taking a positive turn, though Alabama’s schools aren’t receiving anywhere near the amount of money they did in FY08. Here’s a quick visual, depicting...
View ArticleWhat Do Check Registers Reveal About School Spending?
With news of Alabama’s abysmal ranking in yet another study about K-12 school funding coupled with hints at possible changes to the formula used to distribute Alabama’s tax dollars to school...
View ArticleAmendment 4 – Protection for Local School Boards Against Unfunded Mandates
Amendment 4 will be on your ballot on Tuesday, November 4. Proponents claim it will protect local school boards against unfunded mandates from the state legislature. An unfunded mandate refers to an...
View ArticleThe Alabama Accountability Act: Who Is Eligible for Scholarships?
The Alabama Accountability Act (AAA) of 2013 provides eligible students needing money to change schools the opportunity to apply for and receive scholarship money through Scholarship Granting...
View ArticleThe FY16 Rolling Reserve Cap and Other Calculations
Time to talk FY16 budgets. Yep, FY15 just began on October 1, 2014, but good budget planning begins years ahead, right? One of the political footballs that gets tossed around every year is what’s known...
View ArticleThe State Board of Education’s Preliminary FY16 Budget Request – UPDATED...
The State Board of Education (SBOE) approved a preliminary budget proposal for FY16 at the December 10, 2014, board meeting. The proposal marks the beginning of a three-year initiative to bring...
View ArticleTeacher Salaries: Recovering after the Recession?
Now that we know how teacher salaries compare to the folks whose children they teach, let’s take a look at how teacher salaries have (or have not) grown over the past five years. We know that the...
View ArticleSpending Priorities in Alabama’s Schools: Coaching Supplements
With lawmakers proposing to increase available tax credits through the Alabama Accountability Act (AAA) to $35 million, we are hearing from those concerned about that money being taken out of the...
View ArticleOther Things in the ETF Budget
The legislature is expected to begin budget discussions when they return from spring break on Tuesday. In recent years, the amount of tax revenue allocated from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) to...
View ArticleHow Principal Salaries Have Changed Since 2009
After looking at the average principal’s salary within a district and how it compares to the families who live in that school district, it’s time to look at how principal salaries have changed since...
View ArticleComparing Salaries of Teachers and Principals
We are nearing the end of this series on teacher and principal salaries, but there are a few more ways to look at these numbers. In this article, we’ll take a look at teachers’ salaries as a percentage...
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