Financing Education in a Climate of Change

Dr. Vern Brimley has been a public school administrator for over 30 years, retiring as administrative assistant to the superintendent of Provo City Schools.  He has been director of federal programs, purchasing, research, public relations an elementary teacher and principal.  He served on the State of Utah committee delegated by the Utah State Legislature to study the Utah School Finance system giving several presentations to the committee.  Twelve major changes resulted from this study, including equalization of capital outlay budgets.  Dr. Brimley taught in a secondary modern school in Great Britain for a year on a Fulbright Exchange scholarship. He was selected as one of 40 educational administrators from throughout the U.S. and Canada to participate in the initial intensive two-month study program under the sponsorship of the National Academy for School Executives (NASE) – the training arm of the American Association of School Administrators (NASA) - and the Danforth Foundation. The Study-Leave Fellowship provided the opportunity for Dr. Brimley to study the financial structure of state educational systems and state departments of education.  The Kettering Foundation designated him as an Innovative Educator. He has been a consultant for the Utah State Legislature Education Committee and was liaison with that body while with Provo schools.  He has been a consultant for several school districts   Dr. Brimley was a student of Professor Percy Burrup and did research for the first edition of Financing Education in a Climate of Change and was co-author of the third edition with Professor Burrup.  He teamed with Dr. Rulon Garfield after Dr. Burrup’s death to write the fourth through eleventh edition and with Dr. Deborah Verstegen as co-author for the eleventh and twelfth edition. Dr. Brimley served as an Adjunct Professor at Brigham Young University and has taught many education leadership courses, but specialized in school finance and school business management.  He has presented papers at conferences including the American Education Finance Association and has written articles on various education issues.  He is married to Dawn Baker Brimley.  They are the parents of three daughters and have ten grandchildren.   Deborah Verstegen is a Professor of Educational Leadership, College of Education, University of Nevada, Reno. She served as Edwin J. O’Leary Chair of Financial Management, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2006-07 and was a professor in finance, policy and leadership in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia for nearly two decades.  Prior to joining the university community in 1984, she was a teacher, administrator and legislative aide in state government.  She has had teaching experience at all levels, from pre-school, elementary, secondary, and community college, to university, at the graduate level.  Her administrative experience in education is also broad.  She has been a central office administrator for a K-12 school system in Alaska's Iditarod Area School District--which is approximately the size of Ohio and includes 14 schools and two preschools--Director of the Mid-management Program at the University of Texas at Austin, and Department Chair at UNR.  She has worked in government as a legislative aide in Wisconsin's House of Representatives and as a lobbyist for the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly.  She was named Distinguished National Fellow in Finance in 2011 and developed an equity statistic, later named the “Verstegen Index” by scholars. Dr. Verstegen is actively involved in several professional associations and currently she serves as an Education Policy Editor for the JEF and serves on the Board of Advisors for the National Education Finance Conference.   Currently, she is a tenured professor at the University of Nevada teaching graduate and undergraduate classes.     Rulon Garfield, Ph.D., has a distinguished history in educational finance. As full Professor of Educational Leadership he sat in the finance-economic-policy chair at Brigham Young University formerly occupied by the late Percy E. Burrup. Just prior to accepting this position he was Director, Management Consultant Services, Coopers and Lybrand, assisting in finance and business administration issues for local districts, state departments of education, colleges and universities.   He has been a Presidential Appointee of Gerald R. Ford as Chairman of the Federal Regional (VIII) Council; Regional Director (VIII) Department of Health, Education and Welfare; Lead Regional Director of Finance and Management, Lead Regional Director for Education, HEW; State Senator, serving on the Education and Appropriations Committees. His service included that of being a teacher in elementary school, junior high, high school, community college, college, university—undergraduate and graduate. As an educational leader at the elementary, secondary, district, state, and national levels he has had to solve many practical problems in educational finance.   When chosen as an American Political Science Congressional Fellow, he served as a Legislative Staff Assistant in the United States House of Representatives and in the United States Senate as a Special Staff Assistant to the vice President of the United States. He is the author of numerous articles and three books, a speaker at national meetings and state conventions on educational finance. Dr. Garfield co-authored the fourth through the 10th editions of Financing Education in a Climate of Change with Dr. Vern Brimley and with the addition of Dr. Deborah Verstegen for the eleventh and twelfth edition.

Chapter 1 The Economics of Education

 Education as Human Capital

 Creation of Wealth and Education

 Education: An Important Industry

 A Public-Sector Responsibility

 Economics and Social Progress

 Economic Benefits of Education

 Noneconomic Benefits of Education

 Taxation and Education

 Cost-Quality Relationship in Education

Chapter 2 The Need for Adequate Funds

 Societal Impact on Educational Needs

 Education Deserves High Priority

 The Public Wants Good Schools

 The Increasing Costs of Education

 Demographic and Social Influences

 The Consequences of Not Education People Adequately

 Society Suffers the Effects of Poor Education

 What is the Cost of an Adequate Education?

Chapter 3 Financing Education Equitably

 Inequalities in Financing Education

 Equity: An Objective of School Finance Reform

 Equity at the School Level

 Measures of School District Wealth

 Historical Influences on Equity  

 The Equalization Principal

 Improving State Equalization Practices

 Foundation Program Variations

 The Impact of Average Daily Attendance on Equity

 The Changing Climate and Current School Finance Practices

Chapter 4 Patterns for School Finance Systems

 Developing Patterns

 Determining the Best Finance Plan

 Full State Funding

 District Power Equalization

 Property Reassessment and Local District Revenues

 Emphasis on Weighting Factors

 Principal Types of Weightings

Chapter 5 Sources of Revenue

 The Taxation System

 Education- Financed by Government

 Characteristics of a Good Tax System

 Taxes for Education

 Income Tax

 Sales Tax

 Property Tax

 Excise Tax

 Severance Tax

 Other Funding Sources

 Potential New Taxes

Chapter 6 Eroding Local Control

 Changing Rural-Urban Influence on Education

 Basic School District Administrative Units

 The Administration of Local School Districts

 Advantages of Local Control

 Fiscal Independence of School Districts

 Trends in Local Taxation Practices

 Measure of Local Taxpaying Ability

 Local, State, and Federal Tax Responsibility

Chapter 7 Education: A State Function

 Early Development of State Responsibility

 Development of Decentralized Educational Systems

 Development of School Finance Policies

 Developmental Stages of School Finance

 The Varying State Programs

 State Ability to Support Education

Chapter 8 Federal Interest in Education

 Federalism

 Historical Role of the Federal Government

 U.S. Department of Education

 Constitutional Role

 Block Grants, Categorical Aid, and General Aid

 Federal Expenditures

 Fiscal Advantages and Disadvantages

 Increased Government Service

 The Future of Federal Aid to Education

Chapter 9 The Influence and Climate of the Courts

 Three Waves of School Finance Litigation

 The First Wave of School Finance Litigation

 The Second Wave of School Finance Litigation

 The Third Wave of School Finance Litigation: A Shift from Equity to Adequacy

 Second-Generation Adequacy Cases

 Impact of School Finance Litigation over Time

 Pressure for Reform

 Finance Reform or Tax Reduction?

 Court Decision Guidelines

Chapter 10 Public Funds and Nonpublic Schools

 The Law and Church-State Relations

 Educational Choice

 Controversy Not Solved

Chapter 11 Financing School Facilities

 Early Capital-Outlay Programs

 The Need

 Current Capital-Outlay Rulings

 State Support

 Equity in Financing Educational Facilities

 The Federal Government and Capital Outlays

 Capital-Outlay Finance Plans

 School Bonding Practices

 Other Alternatives

 Impact Fees

Chapter 12 Administering the District and School Budget

 Evolution of Budgetary Practices

 Development of a Systems Approach to Budgeting

 District and School Budgetary Approaches

 District-Level Budgetary Practices

 Administering the District Budget

 School/District Coordination

 Budgeting at the School Level

 Challenge of Leadership

Chapter 13 Accounting and Auditing

 The School Accounting System

 The Changing Accounting Environment

 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

 Characteristics of Governmental (Fund) Accounting

 Encumbrance Accounting

 Cost Accounting

 Accrual Accounting

 Receiving and Depositing Funds

 Expending School Funds

 Auditing

 Protecting School Funds

Chapter 14 Business Aspects of the School Community

 Increased Safety Hazards

 The Business Office

 Supplies and Equipment

 Purchasing

 Supply Management

 Risk Management

 Transportation

 School Food Services

Chapter 15 Human Resources and School Finance

 The Expanded Role of Human Resources Administration

 Teacher Compensation

 Certification

 Pay-for-Performance-- Merit Pay

 Additional Issues

 Teachers and School Finance

 The Changing Assignments of Teachers

 Administrative and Supervisory Salaries

 Noncertified Personnel Salaries

 Payroll Policies and Procedures

 Government Influence

Chapter 16 The Road Ahead in School Finance

 The Past as Prologue

 The Continuing Climate of Change

 Investments in Education

 Improvements in Education

 The Future of Public School Finance

 Unresolved Issues

 Some Characteristics of Educational Structure

 School Finance Goals

 The Challenge