Finance in Education Chapter 15

Human Resource and School Finance Human resources administration is possible the most important function in education when it is based on the realization that school’s success and effectiveness are dependent on those people working within the school, whether they are students or employees.

Expanding the Role As the school complex has expanded its isze, the need for improving school personnel services has also increased. School boards continue to face concerns related to the selection and recruitment, orientation, assignment, and payment of instructional and other personnel.

Teacher Salaries One of the ventral tasks of educational administration is to allocate funds, facilities, personnel, and information in such a way that the improvement of educational achievement between entering and leaving students is maximized. To that end, the general purpose of the compensation process is allocate resources for salaries, wages, benefits, and rewards in a manner that will attract and retain a school staff.

Salary Schedules As schedules develop they generally became the single-salary variety (equal pay for personnel with the same qualifications and experience). An extension of the single-salary schedule developed that included additional pay for yearly steps and additional schooling still utilized by most districts.

Merit Pay Merit pay has received renewed attention nationwide because of the call for educational reform and accountability. Some suggest the salaries for teachers and administrators should be based on performance. The challenge in awarding merit pay comes in all parties agreeing in a scale and the subjective nature of evaluating performance.

Current Certification Issues Alternative Certification – Includes identifying and recruiting individuals with superior knowledge in such subjects as math and science; a mentoring program develops their pedagogical skills National Certification – Mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do, to develop and operate a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet the standard

Early Retirement As a budget-saving remedy, school boards across the country are considering early retirement incentives that provide cash bonuses or retroactive pay raises for teachers with many years of service who are at the top of the salary schedule. The rationale is that staff turnover saves the difference between the top step and the entry –level step in the single-salary approach.