In the United States, school districts operate as a type of special purpose local government. Similar to general purpose governments, school districts are funded by own-source and intergovernmental revenues, although there is considerable variation in their revenue mix, contingent in part upon state-funding formulas. Unlike general purpose governments, school districts focus on the provision of public education to facilitate student learning, and therefore, expenditures are primarily relegated to teacher, support staff, and administrator salaries and benefits. Ensuring the provision of public education begins in part with the budget process. The school district budget process can assume different forms from incremental to rational and may involve a range of stakeholders, including elected officials and members of the public. Incremental budgeting begins with the prior-year budget and small upward increments, while alternatives can be based on rational decision-making theories, such as performance budgeting or zero-based budgeting. Despite these different potential budgeting methods, systematic evidence of their implantation in school districts is generally unavailable. As a complement to the budget process, school districts are also involved in financial management, which involves the strategic analysis of financial condition in the pursuit of financial resiliency and sustainability. In particular, school district budgeting and financial management involves strategically planning for and responding to internal and external trends to ensure continued public service provision in the form of public education. As a growing area of research, school district budgeting and financial management encompasses topics such as budget forecasting, financial condition analysis, optimization of fiscal reserves over the business cycle, and debt management, among other topics.
Third Trimester Vitamin D Status Is Associated With Birth Outcomes and Linear Growth of HIV-Exposed Uninfected Infants in the United States
