Providing Principals with Accounting Skills - Essay Example

Capital and Debt Management Summary of the interview In order to understand much about school finance, I had to take my time and arrange for an interview with Mrs. Acquelyn Y. Smith. Mrs. Smith is the current principal for Murrell Taylor Elementary School. As a senior school administrator, Mrs. Smith has used her position to manage school resources. With the on-site school budgeting process especially among the schools in Pulaski County Special School District, the budget making exercise is mainly reserved for the principals. Meaning, it is people like Mrs. Smith who are responsible for the management of school funds. However, it is not a simple task to manage school resources. This is due to the fact that it involves lots of challenges. These include inadequate expertise in accounting, finance and budget making. Most of these principals are appointed based on their teaching, but not financial management. The other challenge mentioned by Mrs. Smith is that public schools do not receive adequate finances. Even if the schools have lots of programs and projects to finance, they often have little revenue mainly because of the constrained disbursement of grants and poor fee collection from the learners (Stroh & Neale, 2002). At the same time, these capitations often delay since they are not disbursed in time. Moreover, she told me that, as school principals, they do not have full authority to make and implement their own budgets. However, their decisions are subject to manipulations by the School Management Board and District Management Boards. Meaning, they are not free to autonomously utilize their school resources. Introduction As a matter of fact, education is a very program in the society. As a necessity, it requires allocation of enough resources which should come from the government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), well-wishers and individual community members who are concerned about educational provisions in the country. At the same time, additional revenues can be generated from the schools based on the tuition, library, catering and transportation services they provide to their learners. All these should be enough in order to enable the schools to effectively run their programs and projects without much challenges. Since no school can smoothly run without money, it is incumbent upon the school management and administration to ensure that the available funds are appropriately utilized. This is the only way through which the schools can be in a better position of supporting all the programs in accordance with their regular plans. However, this is not always the case since most of the school principals who are charged with the mandate of using school resources do not the same. Instead, they engage in inappropriate activities such as wastage, embezzlements and misappropriation of the available resources (Kettl & Fessler, 2009). This is one of the challenges facing public schools in the country. Based on my interviews with Mrs. Smith, I came to learn about several challenges that face school principals. As she said, the budget making process that they are responsible for is a very complicated exercise. It involves lots of bureaucratic procedures that none of them would like to associate with. A part from lacking financial management skills, these principals have to budget with inadequate revenues which cannot fully support all their expenses. For this reason, this paper recommends that the school principals should be given adequate training on financial management. At the same time, schools should be given adequate funds. Moreover, all the unnecessary red tapes should be eliminated. Thus, the principals will be in a better position of making and implementing their budget without the pressure from any external forces. Financial Challenges Lack of Accounting Skills The first challenge facing school principals is lack of adequate skills on financial management. According to Mrs. Smith, most of the principals are the ones who are responsible in the management of school funds. However, they do not perfectly execute this duty as they lack adequate knowledge on accounting. Even if they are school managers, they are still teachers. Financial management does not only require teaching skills which they have. Being professional teachers does not guarantee these teachers to be good financial managers. Therefore, they face lots of challenges when it comes to the making and implementation of school budgets. As Mrs. Smith encounters, without having book keeping skills, it might not be possible for them to effectively implement them as expected. For a person to know how to make an institutional budget, they should be in a possession of basic accounting and book keeping skills. This is the only thing which can help them to have a deeper understanding about the school revenues, expenditures and how to prioritize their expenses. This causes a very big problem to these administrators especially when making school budgets (Sullivan & Sheffrin, 2003). Since they are ignorant of the required procedure and rules, there are higher chances of making lots of mistakes which might end up being too costly to them. In fact, the high cases of financial misappropriation results for the fact that most of the school administrators who are mandated to use these resources, lack the prerequisite and necessary financial management skills. I would like to agree with Mrs. Smith for making such a claim because it is justified. Inadequate Funding The other challenge faced by school principals who are concerned about financial management is lack of enough funds to use in their respective schools. As encountered by Mrs. Smith during the interview, a large portion of public schools’ budget is supported by the federal government’s grant. Other sources of revenue come from local and school kitty. Most of the schools in Pulaski County Special School District do not have enough revenues that can effectively support all their programs and projects. Given that these public institutions mostly rely on the government for funding, things have not been much better. Despite the increasing rate of enrolment and inflation rates, government grants have not been increased. In fact, the disbursement formula which was in use several years ago is still being used. This has persisted even if the enrolment rates in these schools have tremendously increased. Besides, the costs of operations have become higher than it was before. Thus, it implies that schools should be given adequate financial resources to use in catering for their day to day activities which cannot be done without money. As I found out in my conversations with Mrs. Smith, school principals are still obliged to budget using the little amount of funds at their disposal. This has become a very challenging experience as they cannot effectively draw a good budget that to fit all their projects. Therefore, as administrators, they are always at a cross roads on exactly what kind of program to fund at the expense of others (Kettl & Fessler, 2009). In fact, Mrs. Smith reported to me such a situation is quite disastrous to the principals. Since it is a requirement that the budget making process should be inclusive, it is not always easier to satisfy various departmental heads who come with their priority projects to be funded. Unfortunately, most of them fail to acknowledge that the school has limited resources to finance all their programs. In case they fail to get the required funding, they may, in several occasions, cause a lot of antagonism. Such conflicts are very unfortunate since they are not safe for the schools. Whenever they erupt, they can cause tensions and rivalry within the school. It may adversely affect the performance of these institutions. Lack of Autonomy As an experienced school administrator, Mrs. Smith categorically stated to me that most public school principals are not free to make their own decisions. As public servants, their decisions are subject to approval and manipulations by the higher authorities. These simply refer to the Department of Education officials including School Management Boards, District School Management Boards and the State Department of Education. These are very important officers who are charged with the duty of supervising and overseeing the day to day operations of (public) schools in the nation. In Arkansas, the State Department of Education works in conjunction with the District Superintendent of Schools and the Chairperson of district and respective school management boards to monitor and regulate the educational activities within their respective areas of jurisdiction (Stroh & Neale, 2002). Since these officers have authority over school principals, they can dictate how school resources should be utilized. As educational stakeholders, they are highly regarded and can determine the kind of decisions to be made by the school principal. When it comes to budget making, it is them who have a final say. When they fail to approve a budget, it cannot be implemented whatsoever. This is a very great challenge which most of these teachers have been facing. By operating under a direct supervision of such personnel, it means that school principals are not autonomous in making important decisions regarding their schools. For instance, when making a school budget, it must be approved by the School Management Board and the State Department of Education (Kettl & Fessler, 2009). Meaning, however good it might be, if it does not appeal to these officials, it cannot be implemented whatsoever. Such a situation subjects school principals to a humiliating condition as it strips them off their financial management powers over their institutions. Delays in Financial Disbursement As already hinted, public schools in Pulaski County Special School District heavily rely on government capitation. It is such funds which are used in financing foundational and all the other programs in schools. Unlike in the private schools which directly rely on fee collections, these public schools might get inconvenienced by their financiers. Moat school administrators do wait for a very long time before they eventually receive their disbursements. Such delays are not healthy for the schools because, Mrs. Smith says that they can interfere with the smooth running of these schools.  It does not only embarrass, but also disappoints when the schools are not in possession of the money which has been allocated to them. The delay of the disbursement of funds makes the budgeting process become a very challenging exercise in the public schools within this school district. As a school head, Mrs. Smith explained to me how she has, severally, faced a lot of difficulties in dealing with the same problem. She has had to spend the money which has not been actually sent to the school bank account. Meaning, for her to provide day to day essential services such as food, transportation, library and tuition, she has been forced to borrow money from other sources or rely on credit facilities (Menzel & Harvey, 2011). This has been causing lots of problems between her office and the school suppliers who might not understand that schools have not gotten their capitations. Delaying school disbursements has been causing a lot of stress to the school heads in several schools. It has made it extremely difficult for the school heads to effectively manage their resources. Recommended Solutions Providing Principals with Accounting Skills For the school heads to be helped to properly manage school resources, they should be thoroughly trained. A part from possessing teaching skills, they should be equipped with financial management skills. These are necessary for helping them to keep records, understand the school revenues, approximate the expenditures, make budget and implement it. Therefore, as much as pedagogic knowledge are important to them, they should also be, at all times, equipped with accounting skills. Without such information, they can be ignorant about financial management. This, as explained by Mrs. Smith, can be disastrous for their respective schools. Lack of accounting knowledge is one of the reasons why most of the school heads in Pulaski Special County School are engaging in financial misappropriation. Basic accounting skills are necessary for the keeping of financial records, understanding the budgets making process and prioritizing school projects that need funding. For all these to be achieved, each and every school principal should be knowledgeable, not only about teaching, but also about financial management. Money is a very scarce resource which should be properly utilized. More so, public funds should be managed by intelligent people who can be held accountable in case of any problem. For this reason, I would like to rally behind Mrs. Smith for emphasizing that financial management should be a prerequisite and mandatory requirement for any principal. Without it, they should never be entrusted with the management of school resources because they lack the knowledge required to do so. This menace can be ultimately resolved by offering orientation, induction, seminar, workshops and encouraging school principals to attend public and financial management conferences in which they can acquire much information about how they can be resourceful managers in their respective institutions. Increase Funding for Schools The other way through which financial management challenges can be resolved is by ensuring that all public schools receive adequate financial resources. No school should be compelled to operate under minimal budgets which can be constraining it. When schools operate under a tight budget, they might not be able to effectively support all their activities. In fact, all the academic, non-academic and extra curricular activities would be paralyzed. Hence, in order to eradicate such a disaster, each school should have enough money based on their needs. In order to do this, the government should increase the amount of grants being disbursed to public schools. The Department of Education must acknowledge that the current disbursement formula is not appropriate. Schools nowadays have an expansive budget since they have a high number of learners who require additional facilities and services to efficiently sustain. Moreover, the economic conditions have increased the costs of operations (Gomez-Mejia, et al., 2008). Meaning, additional resources are required. Because of this reason, each school should be given additional capitation from the government. At the same time, they should get increased local funds and also look for ways to collaborate with and lobby for more resources from the community members, Non-Governmental and religious organizations which are willing to chip in. this will be a relief to the school principals who have been troubled, stressed and frustrated by managing insufficient and unmanageable funds all along. Simplifying the Budget Making Process As it is now; the budget making exercise in Pulaski County Special District, and may be Arkansas at large, is quite complicated. It is surrounded by lots of bureaucratic procedures which do not add any value to it. Instead, it only inconveniences the school principals who feel deprived of their powers to make such important decisions about their schools. No single principal in public school has a full authority to determine what to include in their budget without being allowed by the School Management Board. This means that they are denied the power and freedom to make their own decisions (Menzel & Harvey, 2011). In order to resolve this problem, it is recommended that the budget making process should be simplified. Even if accountability and transparency should be encouraged as Mrs. Smith exclaims, it should be done in a diligent manner. On-site school budgeting process does not mean that the principals should be manipulated. It means that they should be allowed to actively participate in making their own budgets since it is them who best understand what is good for their institutions. By subjecting them to the control by the boards, it implies that they are not free to act without any influence. However, this should be stopped as it denies them their independence and freedom to decide for their schools which of course, they understand much better than anyone else. References Gomez-Mejia, L. et al. (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill. Kettl, D. & J. Fessler. (2009). The Politics of the Administrative Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press. Menzel, D. & Harvey, W. (Eds.) (2011). The State of Public Administration: Issues, Challenges and Opportunity. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Stroh, L. K. & Neale, M. A. (2002). Organizational behavior: A management challenge. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Sullivan, A. & M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. Read More