Financial Resources of the School - Essay Example

? School Resources Lecturer: The research project provided a brief introduction to the topic under researchstudy. It revealed the financial resources of the school, which include the revenue and expenditure since these accounts for the significant part of the state money. It tackled on the financial resources at the local, state and federal level whereby, in the local level, the researcher talked about SPLOT money and other financial resources. The primary source of revenue was identified and other sources were included. The project included the way each revenue source was generated by the locals, and revealed the issues of staffing requirements based on the state funding allotments and optimum class size. Lastly, the comparisons for the required staff, allotted staff and desired staff were also provided. School Resources Introduction The aim of schools at Newton County in Georgia State is to offer learning excellence to every child. Georgia State ensures that every occupant is entitled to enhanced education since better education is the right for every inhabitant. Therefore, for the state government to fulfill this aspect, it ensures that students receive better education across the state. This is through deploying teachers with effective education skills and offering them, better incentives to enable them deliver effective services. Every state constitution ensures that every citizen has the right to education; thus, the states play significant roles in ensuring that there are fair and equitable financial resources vital for enabling teachers to deliver effective services to students (LexiNexis, 2013). The financial resources, which is available in every state has two parts including the revenue and the expenditure sides. Funds have been on increase and many fundraisers have been dedicated to varied schools in order to make education work better for all citizens. Financial Resources State The financial resources of the school will include the revenue and expenditure since these accounts for the significant part of the state money. The funding revenue taxes are produced by the states and these are allocated for varied activities at the local schools. For instance, the high school local 5 mills are 197, 117, 287 and this indicates that 1 mill is worthy 39423457.4 dollars (Barge, 2013). These accounts for the total funds generated to meet the total expenses, which is often not funded by the federal or state government. Newton district received state funds of about $ 10, 009,047 for learning purposes in the current year (GaDOE, 2013). The QBE (Quality Basic Education), which is salary and operating cost for high school grade 9-12, is $ 11, 390,203. The FTE (full-time equivalent) is approximated 3, 741; thus a teacher teaching in high school will earn approximately $2,744. 80 (Barge, 2013). Federal The federal funding for schools in the current year is $ 1, 814, 00 to Newton County and direct transfer for federal revenue is $ 91. 000 (Barge, 2013). The federal government transfer of income, which is provided to the Georgia state, can be categorized in varied ways. The child nutrition act is estimated at $ 580, 000, safe and drug fee to schools is $ 8.000, children with disabilities act is $ 360, 000, vocational and technological education is $ 35,000 and other federal funding is estimated at $ 238,000. The federal government to enable the local schools to meet the needs of students with disabilities meets more than 5 percent of funds for locals; these funds are generated form tax collections and the QBE act makes the decisions about the funding. Therefore, the local system should provide FTE enrollment of students in order to enable the federal government deliver the state funding effectively. This is because the state funding relies heavily on full-time equivalent report. Therefore, it is necessary for a student in Newton County to report in class at least for ten to fifteen days before the FTE report is taken. This is vital because the funding available for every student in the district depends on the reports submitted; thus, the numbers of students in class and teachers in schools also matters when the state is offering FTE funding. Locals The property taxes contribute or form the major source of government revenue for local learning institutions in Georgia; the tax, which is also levied upon them, depends upon the millage rate, which is restricted by the state at twenty mills. For instance, in about 10 districts in the state, the property tax generates at least 95% of the total local tax revenues for local school board (Loeb, 2013). The property tax is produced to meet the costs, which the Georgia state or the central government fails to fund (GSSA, 2013)., whereby, the taxable values multiplied by property tax rate are equal to the property tax levied and the property tax rates can be expressed in terms of mills; for instance, 1 mill is equivalent to 10 mill limitation; thus $1 may be estimated to be $ 10, 000. The local sales, income taxes, debts and also other taxes offer supplementary funds to schools at Newton County in Georgia State (Loeb, 2013).Georgia state allow schools in Newton county to levy a local income tax for schools funding; thus, a surcharge on the state income tax is moderately easy to manage and it can contribute to better progress of schools. However, the collected funds from revenue taxes are less secure than property taxes (Loeb, 2013). The limited income taxes can be generated through taxing the amount of money earned from salaries; for instance, 1% income tax on the traditional tax base will generate 11.5 million dollars per a year. Moreover, local sales taxes also play significant roles but Georgia State permits independent school districts to levy the sales tax. The local boards and districts in Newton are allowed to generate funds through SPOLT (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) and bonds. However, these funds, which are collected from SPOLT and bonds, can be utilized on capital expenses including technology, and building materials. However, the funds cannot be spent on meeting operational and other school expenses. Voters at the district level who offer sanction to SPOLST generate the local sales taxes through voting process. This exercise usually occurs after five years, as well as, offers the final decision for the selected project; thus, it is difficult to alter the project once voters have voted for it. The Staffing Requirements In most cases, stuffing of teachers in schools are carried out depending on the number of students in schools and the available funds effective for paying salaries to teachers. The stuffing requirements of tutors depend upon the financial aid allotments offered by the Georgia state; for instance, in Alcovy P.E department, there are six tutors in grades 9 to 12; thus the state will offer the school board 10,000 dollars, which should be used for paying teachers (GSSA, 2013). Therefore, the state will have to reduce the amount of funds from every school system in order to meet other costs such as health insurance funds for teachers and teachers retirements funds; thus the funding money for the state is likely to reduce for about $ 500. This means that Alcovy P.E department may lose the funding money of about 3 % of the total funding. Optimum Class Size The local boards of education and school in Georgia states are required to comply with optimum class size. This is because any local boards of education who fail to comply with the optimum class size may be subjected to a loss of funding for the whole program, which is out of agreement (Matthew, 2011). The number of students trained by a tutor should not exceed the optimum class size in the first 15 days of school attendance, as required by a state; for example, the funding of class size for normal kindergarten pupils is 15 and the optimum number is approximated at18. The funding of class size for grade 9-12 is 23 and the optimum number is 35; thus, the class, which has beyond that average class size, is not entitled to funding. Therefore, the local boards of education are required to establish required optimum number of class size for varied courses, which should not exceed the funding size of more than 39 percent. Comparisons of the Required Staff to the Allotted Staff to the Desired Staff Every child in Georgia State is entitled to have a highly qualified, caring tutor in every course and classroom. Therefore, the number of staff required is aligned to the number of the allotted staff and the desired staff members in every learning institution. The state revenues comprise the greater portion than the federal and local contributions; thus, the state allocates funds to schools depending on the class size in relation to the required staff and to the allotted staff. For instance, about 56 percent of the state revenue, which is equivalent of $ 3, 807 dollars is the average expenditure per student in grade 9-12. However, 10 percent increase is estimated to $ 65 million; thus, some schools may face difficulties to recruit employees in job classifications. This is because of the inability for the state to offer competitive salaries for particular workforce specifications such as custodians or school drivers. References Barge, D.J (2013).Georgia Department of Education. Retrieved on June 11, 2013 from http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/qbe_reports.public_menu?p_fy=2000 GSSA. (2013). Georgian School Superintendents Association. Retrieved on June 11, 2013 http://www.ciclt.net/sn/clt/gssa/default.aspx?ClientCode=gssa Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). (2013). Georgia Department of Education. Retrieved on June 11, 2013 from http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Pages/Home.aspx LexiNexis. (2013). State of Georgia Code: Retrieved on June 11, 2013 from http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/ Loeb, S. (2013). Local Revenue Options for K–12 Education, pp. 125-154. Retrieved on June May, 2013 from http://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Loca%20Revenue.pdf%E2%80%8E Matthew, G. (2011). Newton County School System. Retrieved on June 11, 2013 from http://www.newtoncountyschools.org/board-of-education.aspx Read More