SPSE 6340 Syllabus

School Finance – Spring 2012

Course Title: School Finance Number: SPSE 6340

Instructor: Joel Hausler

College of Education 329

Office phone (615) 904-8272

Home phone (931) 394-3053

Email – joel.hausler@MTSU.edu

Texts: Tennessee Internal School Uniform Accounting Policy Manual

Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury OREA Report

School Support Organizations Financial Policy Manual

Tennessee Basic Education Program (BEP)

Goals of the Course:

· to acquaint participants with funding of education at federal, state, local, and school levels

· to investigate local school system budgets

· to identify fiscal responsibilities of school systems and school leaders

· to explore the Tennessee model for funding education

Topics:

· BEP in Tennessee

· Funding of education from national to local levels

· What is school leader responsibility for school monies?

· Funding for individual schools – state and local funding

Assignments

Each participant will complete the following: (Print and submit in portfolio form)

1. Obtain a budget for your school system and answer the following:
Where does the money come from? (sources)
What long term commitments tie up money?
Are there items that seem underfunded?
What priorities does the budget indicate to you?

2. Attend a school board meeting and summarize all the budget discussions that come up. Are these requests for additional money or do they fall under categories described in the current budget plan? You may want to supplement your findings with newspaper articles that deal with funding issues inside your county or city.

3. Interview the bookkeeper at your school. Prepare a list (or flowchart) of the sources of money within your school and describe how those funds are monitored. You may have to talk to the cafeteria manager as well if they have their own budgetary control.

4. Tennessee uses the BEP formula to fund education. Look at the state school budget page for your system and a neighboring system. Compare the 2. Are they similar or does the funding seem to be quite different? What accounts for those differences? Does this seem to be a “fair” way to fund education?