Strategic Budgeting for Charter Schools. Accounting, Finance, SPSS

Strategic Budgeting for Charter Schools
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Abstract
At a time when education reform is a significant concern, effective initiatives must be designed not only to enhance student achievement but also to enable school administrators to maximize the use of current resources. While schools are ideally required to utilize efficient information systems in developing data-driven budgets that couple up of school expenditures with relevant educational outcomes, this is not common in many charter schools. Instead, the school budget models that have been created in recent decades are targeted on meeting priorities conflicting to those of the modern education system. With that in mind, a more deliberate and strategic approach to school budgeting and policies and tools are required to help academic institutions make effective and efficient spending decisions. Strategic budgeting aims at developing a plan that supports a long-term vision for the future of an organization. This paper analyzes the process of preparing, amending, and improving budgets in charter schools. This project's primary intent is to prove that it is possible to develop a budget with a plan that supports a long-term vision of charter schools.
Strategic Budgeting for Charter Schools
Introduction
Budgeting is an essential dimensional tool of financial management and accounting in all entities, including schools. It is a process whereby potential revenue and expenditure are determined to streamline the spending procedure. It is mainly executed to enable tracking and monitoring of both the expenditure and revenue. Adopting a school budget requires that the administrators and the governing body make confident decisions that culminate in matching the available resources with the school's needs. As such, a reasonable budget will require a strategic planning process (Hawkesworth & Klepsvik, 2013).
A budget refers to an itemized listing of the amount of the overall estimated revenue that a school expects to receive and a list of the amount of all estimated expenses and costs that will be incurred in a specified period. School budgets can also be defined as financial plans of expected funds and the expenditure required to attain their educational objectives. The nature of the correlation between strategy and budgeting varies from one school to another, and the level of formalized planning also differs (Cools, Stouthuysen & Van den Abbeele, 2017). Nevertheless, generally, many budgets have loose coupling between budget expenditures and strategic objectives.
In most cases, the principal or instructional leader is charged with the prime role of preparing a budget. Such budgets are developed based on resolutions approved by the school’s board, the management committee, and other relevant stakeholders. Evidence in many charter schools remains uncertain, especially in terms of how resource allocation generates results. Research on school finances shows that budgets can be more effective if decisions are made locally and consider the institution’s and community's needs (Blass & Bleikh, 2018). Instead, this document is designed to compel school leaders to take a broader approach to school budgeting that ...