BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Budgeting to support Student Academic Achievement: Two different approaches
María Eugenia Chávez Anduaga
De Paul University
October, 2012
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some trends in mexican school finance
system making some comparisons between mexican school finance system and the
United States system. Analyzing both systems can give us an idea of how both
systems attempt to be more effective in the process of funding schools where the school,
the local entity, the states and the federal government play their roles to achieve better
academic performance with their students. Whether these financial issues have to do
with the students academic achievement, the reforms and their consequences will be
studied comparing how central systems differ from local systems. This paper mentions
different strategies governments design to accomplish the same task: Educate their
young citizens.
The process of decentralizing education is new in Mexico, while United States states
have been operating independently since their creation as part of a nation. Learning
from both countries way of funding and administrating schools will give us a good
perspective on how to pursue a high quality in education in each country has to do with
the effectiveness of a good and fair school finance system.
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Background
Understanding how Public Schools are financially funded in both systems require to
know about politics and a bit of both countries legislation system regarding education.
By the tenth amendment which states that “The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States,
or to the people”. (Youdof, Kirp & Levin, 1992. 841), each state in the United States 1
designed its particular system aligned to their own state constitution. On the other hand,
Mexican Constitution in its “Articulo 3º Constitucional” states the regulation for
education through the country. “ Todo individuo tiene derecho a recibir educación. El
Estado -Federación, Estados, Distrito Federal y Municipios- impartirá educación pre
escolar, primaria, secundaria y media superior. La educación pre escolar, primaria y
secundaria conformarán la educación básica, ésta y la media superior serán
obligatorias”. (Diario Oficial de la Federación, 1917 p. 4) 2
The “Ley General de Educación” (Diario Oficial de la Federación, 1993) contains 3
every right and duty for the federal government as well as the duties and rights for the
states and local entities regarding education. By this law, created in 1993, the
Secretaría de Educación Pública delegates the Department of Education of each state
the administration of education within the federal policies of education.
Youdof, Kirp & Levin, 1992. 841. In Kersten T. Taking the Mystery Out of Illinois School Finance: 2nd 1
Edition p. 6
Diario Oficial de la Federación, 1917. Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Retrived 2
from p.http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/1.pdf
Diario Oficial de la Federación. 1993. Ley General de Educación. 1993 Retrived from http://3
www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/1.pdf
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
From academic standards to the way public education is funded, each country has its
particular way of organization. Mexico and The United States of America are different
from their creation as nations but in the present the two nations understand that
education is strongly related with economics in a global society. This becomes
interesting because although both countries have completely different ways of funding
and administrating their educational systems, both are struggling to increase their
students academic performance on international tests. Both nations are looking to
change and reform their practices, policies and laws regarding education. Unfortunately
today there is no real effectiveness in neither mexican nor american education despite
the expenditure per children in each country according to their ranking in academic
international scales.
Different School Funding Systems
Illinoius School Funding System
According to the United States Constitution, where there is legal authority for
states to regulate education as long as it is not regulated by the Constitution itself.
Illinois has its own particular law and legal authority for public education. As other
states, Illinois is divided by school districts which are funded basically from property
taxes. Property taxes are the basis of Illinois school districts funding, unlike other states
which incorporate personal, sales and income taxes. Illinois schools depend on the
community to operate. This has become an issue, since the source of revenue from
these taxes in different counties become substantially different so the state, in addition,
tries to equilize the inequity by a multiplier in property taxes that mean revenue for the
district. The state task of watching after education and support public education is
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
accomplished by the General State Aid, that uses specific formulas to establish how
much money will be given to each school based on demographics in each school and
district. The legislature and government establish a educational foundation level which
today is less than in past years and shortly enough to meet students requirements.
Schools also received money from the Federal Government by some programs like the
NCLB, but with some restrictions, so school administrators need to rely on some other
sources such as PTO or PTAs contributions or other strategies as small programs.
Schools also attempt to convince contributors to higher property taxes so they can
operate and cope with their daily duty of educating children within their classrooms.
This way of funding schools has its benefits, since each school or district know where
the funds come from and how they will be spent. The community knows where their
taxes will be allocated giving transparency to the “income-outcome” process.
Contributors may be sure that the expenditures of the school correspond to the
community demand. On the other hand, this way of funding limits the sources of
school funding to the community arising substantially social and economical
differences, enlarging the gap between the poor and the rich counties, and as a
consequence more opportunities to wealthy children and less to those in poverty. A
result of this, minimal job or college opportunities for those students living in lower
conditions of life.
Each source of revenue for school districts has its own strict politics and formulas to
calculate the money that will keep a school working. Actually the life of schools keeps
a wide range of divergency between rich and poor districts and consequently between
higher and lower education for children in different communities. The distribution of
resources, the equality and quality of education throughout the country, is the big issue
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
in Illinois and CPS as well as other states in the United States. “Education is not equal
across the state. Districts with healthy property tax bases provide better facilities and
often better learning opportunities for students than those districts with lower property
tax bases. The state needs to address a way to equalize school funding by bringing all
districts up to an acceptable level. Some taxpayers do pay more in property taxes than
others to fund schools. The state also needs to address the huge number of districts in
the state: There is adequate money in the system for education, but more of it needs to
find its way to the classroom.” (The Pantagraph Editorial Board, September 23,2012). 4
Because there have been several policies, procedures and formulas to try to level
education, education faces bureaucracy challenging its efficiency, work and mission.
Other states as Texas, have been operating under the same property taxes funding but
also under a “Robin Hood” scheme where taxes collected from wealthy communities
are distributed to the poor. The consequences are that although property taxes were cut,
and the state look for other sources of revenue, wealthy communities are not willing to
pay more taxes, arguing that their money will be given to others, but the expenditure per
child is more than the state can support.
“In 2006, the Legislature cut local school property taxes by one-third and aimed
to make up for it with state funding from a business margin tax that by some
calculations has created a school funding shortfall of $6 billion annually.
Then, looking to plug gaping budget holes last year, the Legislature cut $4
billion in spending for schools and $1.4 billion in grant programs, causing per-
The Pantagraph Editorial Board, Separate events focus spotlight on school funding. September 4
23,2012. Retrived from http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/editorial/separate-events-focus-spotlight-on-school-funding/article_51306302-0503-11e2-9b41-0019bb2963f4.html#.UF-0FFNZEQk.email
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
student funding to fall more than $500 last year – even while enrollment is
increasing by 80,000 students annually. District superintendents say they've
laid off teachers and increased class sizes to cope with the cuts”. (Will Weissert,
October 22) . Comparing the way the school finance system is developed in 5
each state, we can tell that both states are coping with the same problem:
divergency between wealthy school districts and the poor ones. Lack of state
funds to support education, and less opportunities for children to go to college
that means low-wedges that will impact income taxes in the future.
Mexican School Funding System
In past years, mexican Secretaría de Eduación Pública (SEP) used to be the
central department who administrated school buildings, distributed text books and all
educational and administrative resources for the entire country. SEP designed the
curriculum, decided the school calendar and the academic performance standards for the
all schools in the country. All teachers in mexican territory belonged to the federal
payroll and all schools were in the federal inventory. The source of revenue for each
school came just from Mexican Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP), who
concentrates all taxes, oil revenues from PEMEX, (mexican federal oil company)and
other federal incomes SHCP centralize revenue and design the budget to meet the 6
federal agenda, approved by the legislative power. SHCP consideres SEP budget and
Weissert W. The Huffingtonpost. Texas Schools Head To Trial Over School Finance, Claim 5
System Is Unconstitutional, October 22, 2012. Retrived from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/texas-schools-head-to-tri_0_n_2000574.html?utm_campaign=102212&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-education&utm_content=FullStory
Federal incomes described in Cámara de Diputados del H. Congreso de la Unión. Ley de Ingresos de la 6
Federación para el Ejercicio Fiscal de 2011. Retrived from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/abro/lif_2011/LIF_2011_abro.pdf
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
and assigns the budget according to SEP demands. From 1992 some duties were
delegated to the states and local entities by the issue of the Ley General de Educación.
By this law the federal government transferred the administration of buildings, teachers
salaries, teachers instruction, operation and maintenance expenditures to the states but
still centralizing the funds to operate.
Since that time Mexico has been developing ways to control and supervise the use of
these funds given to the states. These funds are not classified, so each state allocates the
monies from the federal government according to their own interests and needs, and the
way to regulate the expenditures on each school becomes almost unruled.
The Ley General de Educación states that the expenditures for education in each federal
entity will be covered by federal, state and local resources. Each federal entity establish
their educational disbursement for education based on the PIB, but actually the 92% of
all states funding is covered by the federal fund.
By the Acuerdo Nacional para la Educación signed on May 1992, the federal
government and the states agreed to decentralize the school administration to the states.
To transfer the funds SHCP issued the “Ramo General 25 “Aportaciones para la
Educación Básica en los Estados” through the Ramo 11 “Educación Pública” to
complete the decentralization process. (Diario Oficial, Presupuesto de Egresos de la
Federación, 2010). During the decentralization process of education in Mexico, by the 7
adendum of Chapter V to the “Ley the Coordinación Fiscal” it was created “Ramo
General 33” “Aportaciones Federales para las Entidades Federativas” which states
those federal resources that the federal government transfers to the states and the
Diario Oficial. Retrived from 7 diciembre 2003. Presupuesto de Egresos de la Federación http://7
www.conae.gob.mx/work/sites/CONAE/resources/LocalContent/7175/5/PEF2011DOF7dic2011.pdf).
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Distrito Federal for specific programs. The adendum also states which disbursement
needs to meet the object established for that fund such as education. The “Fondo de
Aportaciones para la Educación Básica y Normal (FAEB)” is one of the eight funds
established by this law with the purpose to regulate the support given by the federal
government to the states in educational matters. The fund includes teachers instruction,
K-12 education, special education and ethnical education with all expeditures regarding
educational services. Articles 26,27 and 28 of LCF and the Ramo 25 of the LCF,
regulates this source of revenue to the states. 8
All states are part of this regulation but the Distrito Federal who is under the
administration of the Adminstración Federal de Servicios Educativos en el Distrito
Federal (AFSEDF) who regulates all educational services as well as all administration
of public education in the Distrito Federal. This fund supports the functions specified
by the Articles 13 and 16 of the Ley General de Educación for pre school, elementary,
ethnical education, teachers instruction and curriculum development. As we learn,
Mexican Constitution considers education in her 3rd Article, so government need to
meet this demand. The whole mexican administration centralize the federal sources of
revenue and its disbursement, so schools principals do not deal with different sources of
revenue to operate as United States principals do. On the other hand, issues arise for
school principals when they do not have the necessary funds. Schools do not have
authority or independence to design their budgets according to their needs. They need to
meet the standards and academic outcomes designed by the federal department of
education SEP but there is a lack of resources. The funds the states give to them are not
Cámara de Diputados, December 29, 1997) Retrived from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/cesop/doctos/8
Ramo33%2C%20ReglasOp%2CTransf%20PARA%20INTERNET.pdf)
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
enough to cover the demand in both urban and rural communities. The backwardness of
academic achievement for students in several states is due to the lack of schools and bad
facilities, educational resources and maintenance. Specific programs for ethical
communities are promoted but there are short and do not meet the national needs. In
2008, according to the “Alianza por la Calidad en la Educación” facilities and
equipment for 14,529 schools were in bad conditions, affecting more than one million
856 thousand 569 students. (Notimex, El Universal 2008) 9
School principals are not able to design specific programs to achieve the academic
curriculum established by SEP although the SEP submit her budget to the legislature
camera asking for more funds. Funding mexican schools demand more than the federal
revenue can afford, so children are left behind with no opportunities to go to college or
to access to a high quality education.
When we talk about school funding in Mexico, we talk about a centralized budget and a
major issue that has to do with the whole nation. The system could be good as it is
supposed to be equal for any mexican children, but it demands a more complex way of
organization and funding and specific procedures to reach the educational demands all
over the country. Schools sources of revenue are just one, and there are short, and the
lack of administrative experience of principals and state school education departments
increases the schools administration problem.
Notimex, El Universal. Junio,2008. Buscará SEP mayor presupuesto para educación. Retrived from 9
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/511227.html
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Expeditures
Illinois site school budget system
Chicago, is one of the main and more populated cities in the United States, The
Chicago School Board of Education was founded in 1840 and is in charge of CPS.
Reforms have been developed since then and today the school board operates with a
well designed financial school system to control the revenue and expenditures on each
school according to the state law and the funds for each school. CPS are provided with
a financial computer program (developed by ORACLE Systems), where each school
submit their budget for the school year considering their own needs and funds gained by
the different sources of revenue. Each expenditure for instruction such as salaries,
benefits, administative services, transport, operation and maintenance, and other
expenditures are registered within a code under a number for each fund, function,
object and program, so each dollar spent can be easily tracked. CPS financial central
accounts for all financial movements from each school in the district so the Chicago
School Board has accurate numbers that gives transparency to the allocation of the
money designated to educate Chicago students. CPS has a financial policy for each
program, considering special education, bilingual education, early childhood and other
needs for each school community. CPS budget considers the revenue from local, state
and federal sources and in accordance of Chicago Teacher´s Union demands. There is
a well defined and structured system within the government regulations for each school
to allocate the money given in CPS. This system gives sound financial practices
regarding schools, but on the other hand, it limits some of the resources to specific
programs which sometimes do not meet the schools real needs. CPS are making
reforms trying to give principals more flexibility in their reimbursements by
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
discretionary funds. Still, principals struggle with their budgets to meet daily needs.
Moreover, these needs vary from dealing with inequity, big class sizes, poverty,
multicultural classes, bilinguism, lack of nutrition, lack or parents support, union
demands, the lack of educational resources and equipment, old facilities and other
problems that make it difficult for principals to give and offer a higher quality
education. Furthermore, another crucial aspect of being a principal today is meeting the
goals of the Common Core State standards, which will be fully implemented by
2014-2015. In addition, Mr. Morris, principal from Bourroughs Elementary in
Chicago, explained that his budged is focused on higher the academic standards. He
said that he needs to develop strategies for designing his budget according to the funds
given from the different sources of revenue. “This is an old school facility that needs
maintenance, I managed to change the flooring, and try to give my students better
conditions to study in. Also my efforts are driven to higher the academic standards so
students could go to college. The funds are limited, so the task is to watch after each
dollar, and bargain with teachers salaries to cope with the community demands. Being a
principal for more than 20 years, made me develop budgeting strategies, but I am proud
of what we have done” Morris said. Juanita Almazán, who is in charge of the finances,
of this elementary school, explains how she handles the incomes in cash, which are
only small accounts for students activities. “The whole educational and operation fund
remains in a single bank account handled by the Board who authorizes the budget, and
control every disbursement in the school by the computer system” she added. She also
explains how the principal watches the budget and the opportunity to reallocate the
money to higher the academic performance of their students, designing an agenda
known by the school stakeholders. She has being working with this system and with
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
Mr. Morris for more than 20 years, and she has been watching schools improvements in
both school facilities and students achievement, despite the rough situation of the school
community. While working, Juanita explained how the school planned to buy a
computer through an authorized vendor from the School District. She logged into the
CPS system, with her ID, then she accessed the CPS website, typed the codes for the
funds, the function, and the program. She also entered the cost of the product and the
number of vendors. The system rejected the operation since the planned purchase did
not belong to the fund, thus reallocated the fund back demanding a memorandum
explaining the causes of this operation. She followed the procedure and then the
operation succeeded according to the school principal´s agenda and budget. The
budget of each school considers salaries, operation and maintenance, transportation,
lunches, special education and all services. Each school needs to deal with different
strategies of bargaining with teachers, trading for some services, and looking for better
opportunities for their students and other sources to add revenue to their budgets. 10
Mexican school centralized budget system
Education in México is considered as a politic, social and economic goal in mexican
federal agenda according to Mexican Constitution. As explained before the SHCP
concentrate all incomes to make budget and program the revenues according to the
federal agenda for all the country and all the main programs designed by each Federal
department as Secretaría de Educación Pública. SHCP transfer funds to each entity and
each program. Once each local entity or state receives the money through its local tax
and income local department, it designates and transfers the monies budgeted for the
specific program, as it is the case of education. In the decentralized process all school
Interview with Mr. Morris and Mrs. Almazán from Burroughs Elementary, october 4, 201210
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
expenditures are budgeted by each local entity who centralized all teachers salaries,
operational expenditures, teachers instruction, facilities construction, and only gives an
amount per school to be designated for monthly operation. In contrast with United
States schools, mexican public schools are funded in 80% by federal budget, 20% by
state funds and they may look for some resources that mostly come from parents money.
Mexican Public schools do not have discretional money for their particular needs. The
public budget only considers teachers salaries, textbooks and the facilities construction
and some basic supplies. Objects as maintenance, office supplies, school and sports
supplies are not considered in the budget, so each school need to raise funds by private
money from the parents hence, in poor communities there are not revenue to support a
high quality education.
Principals cope with no money to operate, teachers are federal employees and most of
them belong to the Nation Teachers Union. If a school needs maintenance, or some
educational resources, the principal and school community need to ask for support to
the municipal authority (Presidente municipal). The municipalities have limited
resources to provide and a large agenda to cover. Municipalities or the states depend on
federal funds to operate. Schools have no budget, and teachers salaries are defined by a
table set by the union for the whole federal educational system. Actually, mexican
principals in mexican public schools do not handle a system or rules to design their
budget. Most of the time, they do not submit any reporto on how they spend the money
they raise from parents when that is the case. There are several programs to provide
public schools, but there are communities where resources do not meet the real poverty
situation.
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
The LCF does not specify objects for the funds given to the states or the Distrito
Federal, but teachers salaries, textbooks and school construction. In 2009 the 95% of
this funds were for salaries and services while the 5% were for operation and
maintenance expenditures and for investment funds.
Mexican education system includes private institutions which contribute to educate
mexican children. Private schools are independent organizations aligned to the same
Ley General de Education policy but their source of revenue come from the tuition of
private money, without any support from the federal government nor the states or the
local entity monies. Private schools are handled as a private corporations, but with the
duty of giving a 5% of their tuition revenue for scholarships.
During 2009, 88% from 222,350 elementary operating schools (K-12) in Mexico were
public schools and 12% were private schools. The Secretaría de Educación Pública
(SEP) had 1.2 million teachers working in 87.2 public schools and 12.8 in private
schools. From 25.6 million elementary students (K-12) across the country 90.7%
atended to public schools while 9.3% to private institutions. 1.4 million workers in
basic education were reported in 2009, where 81.3% were salaries paid by the FAEB
fund. Within the states 21.0 million students who attended to schools 61% were
schools funded by the FAEB. By educational level, 56% school students, 62.7%
elementary and 62.5 % secondary students who attend to public schools, were schools
funded with the FAEB fund. (Auditoría Superior de la Federación, Fondo de 11
Aportaciones para la Educación Básica.2010). Mexican centralized school finance
system is going to an operational state system. Every school in mexican land are
Auditoría Superior de la Federación, Fondo de Aportaciones para la Educación Básica.2010.) Retrived 11
from http://www.asf.gob.mx/Trans/Informes/IR2009i/Tomos/Tomo5/01_FAEB_a.pdf
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
supposed to have the resources necessary to cope with the educational task, but as well
as in United States finance system, the lack of funds provided by the state are not
enough to reach every children needs to be educated. Although the budget provided by
the federal government by the FAEB is 57% from the eight other funds of the Ramo
General 33 the students academic performance are low in international tests.
Budgeting to meet academic standards
From a political perspective, education in the United States have been historically
attended according to different demands. As discussed before, states have been in
charge of education. It is from ten years ago, that K-12 education was considered by
the federal government as an important issue to look at. Federal role has been changing
and today the urge to perform highly in the academic field as a nation toward the
international scales, demands reforms to be done. As each state had developed their
own constitution and include or not education, each state academic standards are
different today. Students performance in each state differ from each other. In the past,
there was no real need to concern about that, since children used to attend to the
elementary school in the district, then to high school and sometimes to the college in the
same state. Today the race is more competitive. Society have been changing as well as
means of communication that connect people easily, so comparisons between people´s
performance is more evident across the country. Districts have been operating
independently but now they need to rely in the state and federal support to meet the
nations urge.
The adoption of CCCS as a federal plan to even the academic performance of United
States students is worrying all principal and districts administrators. On one there are
the academic demands, and on the other reduced budgets to cope with them. The large
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
gap between wealthy communities that give the districts more revenue than the poor
becomes the academic performance gap also. As mentioned before, the United States
have been transforming into a multicultural society which demands more from teachers,
school resources, technology and facilities. Principals strive to meet the CCSS that
most schools are adopting, and which Illinois is planning to fully implement in
2014-2015, as other 46 states. In addition, as Mr. Morris principal of John C.
Burroughs Elementary state: “I have been a principal for 20 years, and I have been
always developing strategies to higher the academic level in our school that include
engaging teachers in education, making small classes (25 students) by hiring young
teachers who need to develop skills with small salaries, and who will benefit from
gaining experience with us, so further they will become wanted teachers by other
schools in the pool”. This is always about strategy, bargaining, and perusing the good
for both the giver and the taker”. “It is not an easy job, in some schools as this, where
there are no PTO or PTA to support our budget, but the minimum for their own child
for a field trip or small projects.” “Despite all this, today we have a technology teacher
whose salary is payed as contractual services saving money from the regular benefits,
we are buying technology equipment for our classrooms, once a year, and we change
the floor of each classroom since the school is very old (1835). and two first grade
classes for the bilingual program being one of the most qualified schools in the district”.
In Mexico despite learning outcomes across the country are even, each state performs
differently in educating their students. Diversity, ethnical groups through out the
country, geographic conditions, as well as cultural differences, and reduced budget,
make it difficult to meet the same common core academic standards. All mexican
children have the same textbooks, with some slightly differences in the content
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
according to the area where they live. All mexican schools attend to school the same
days, and all teachers across the nation know the academic standards for each grade,
unit, month and day, and subjects. The Program “Programa for K-12 is based in
constructivism, and the topics, outcomes and assessment are already stated by The
Programa Sectorial de Educación (SEP 2007-2012) aligned to the Plan Nacional de
Desarrollo. 12
The basis for a high quality in education throughout the nation are already set, but
unfortunately the reality is different because social, cultural and economic factor do not
permit that this plan has been fully implemented. As a result, Mexico still have low
academic standards and a poor performance in international assessment.
Some strategies that federal governments implemented in both countries are programs
to motivate teachers through performance bonus. This strategy has not be proven to be
effective. Both in Mexico and the United States, some teachers personal needs go
beyond their educational mission, so the bonus represents more money to their personal
budgets instead of a real way to improve their teachers instruction, or practices.
Conclusion
Daily study conditions in schools are sometimes rough, and principals need to
develop several strategies that goes from financial strategies to personal and social
relationships with the community. To higher the academic performance of the students
a good administrator knows how to bargain, how to develop budgeting techniques, they
use their creativity, their leadership, and also marketing strategies in their daily work, to
accomplish their educational mission. It is important where the funds to operate come
SEP Programa Sectorial de Educación. Retrived from http://basica.sep.gob.mx/reformaintegral/sitio/12
pdf/marco/PSE2007-2012.pdf
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
from, but more important how to make from them the best investment to optimize all
resources in favor of education. Evaluation most be considered then as a key factor for
principals to measure their projects and initiatives, but not as source of revenue.
After studying, comparing and contrasting both systems, we may conclude that site or
centralized system are not bad or good while trying to cope with education. There are a
long way to go to reform both budgeting systems to find an even system that permit
education to reach every young citizen, bringing to all of them the same college and
jobs opportunities in this global society. Learning from each other, sharing good
practices as nations would bring up the media needed to succeed.
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
References
Auditoría Superior de la Federación. (2010). Fondo de Aportaciones para la Educación Básica. Retrived from http://www.asf.gob.mx/Trans/Informes/IR2009i/Tomos/Tomo5/01_FAEB_a.pdf
Cámara de Diputados del H. Congreso de la Unión. (2011) Ley de Ingresos de la Federación para el Ejercicio Fiscal de 2011. México Retrived from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/abro/lif_2011/LIF_2011_abro.pdf
Cámara de Diputados. (1997) Presupuesto de Egresos Ramo 33 December 29, 1997) Retrived from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/cesop/doctos/Ramo33%2C%20ReglasOp%2CTransf%20PARA%20INTERNET.pdf)
Diario Oficial de la Federación (1917) Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Retrived from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/1.pdf
Diario Oficial de la Federación (2003) Presupuesto de Egresos de la Federación Retrived from http://www.conae.gob.mx/work/sites/CONAE/resources/LocalContent/7175/5/PEF2011DOF7dic2011.pdf). Diciembre, 2003
El Universal. (junio 2008). Buscará SEP mayor presupuesto para educación. Notimex. Retrived from http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/511227.html http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/social_sector/latest_thinking/worlds_most_improved_schools
Kersten T. (2011) Taking the Mystery Out of Illinois School Finance: 2nd Edition (p.6). Texas: Rice University. Online: htpp://cnx.org/content/col10606/1.10/
Lakin R. (2007) Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and recollections of a former teacher, principal and kid. New York, Lincoln, Shangai: iUniverse, Ic.
Mourshed M., Chijioke Ch. ,& Barber M. (2010). How the world´s most improved school systems keep getting better. Mc Kinsey & Company. Retrived from http://www.thanks2teachers.com/Portals/0/docs/Teaching_as_an_Act_of_Love.pdf
SEP (2007) Programa Sectorial de Educación. Retrived from http://basica.sep.gob.mx/reformaintegral/sitio/pdf/marco/PSE2007-2012.pdf
BUDGETING TO SUPPORT STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES
The Pantagraph Editorial Board, (2012) Separate events focus spotlight on school funding. September 23,2012. Retrived from http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/editorial/separate-events-focus-spotlight-on-school-funding/article_51306302-0503-11e2-9b41-0019bb2963f4.html#.UF-0FFNZEQk.email Weissert W. (2012) The Huffingtonpost. Texas Schools Head To Trial Over School Finance, Claim System Is Unconstitutional, October 22, 2012. Retrived from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/texas-schools-head-to-tri_0_n_2000574.html?utm_campaign=102212&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-education&utm_content=FullStory
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