Introduction
Miami-Dade Public Schools is among the largest district public schools in United States, comprising of about 400 schools, 350,000 students and more than 39,000 employees. It is located at the southern part of the Florida isthmus. It covers more than 2,000 square miles of different and vivacious communities arraying from countryside, suburban to inner-cities and municipalities. Miami district schools forms a universal community; this is from not only the ability of the students to speak about 60 languages but also their representation of 160 countries.
The students’ achievement gives it a state of honor and national recognition, for instance in the year 2012, Design and Architecture Senior High School was ranked position 16 out of 200 public schools in the United States. However, for Miami-Dade district public schools to maintain or boost student success, it has to incorporate logical budget planning.
Miami district schools’ budget of the FY 2012-13 is approximately $69,677 an incredible $582 fall from 2010-11 budget. Since 2010, the property values have tumbled the universal economy has spluttered, and the employment market has languished. However, the Miami-Dade district has incorporated guiding principles to provide direction in plotting a route through the predictable contraction as ways of improving on radical decline in income.
Miami-Dade district public schools has inoculated guiding principles to effect the achievement of the proposed budget, and among them include, improving student achievement, protecting the classroom, protecting effective workforce, and maintaining the monetary feasibility of the district.
Revenues
Miami-Dade district schools have diverse sources of revenue that contribute to their success, and they include federal revenue, state revenue, local revenue, and property revenue.
Federal revenue contributes approximately $17.5 to the financial status of Miami-Dade public schools. On the other hand, the state revenue is approximately $1,122.7; it contributes immensely to the running of the Miami Dade public schools. Local revenue is approximately $1,212.9 whereas transfers from capital fund contribute $107.1 to the success of Miami-Dade public schools. In sum, beginning fund balance also impacts significantly to the running of the Miami-Dade district school, for instance in the year 2011-2012, $173.5 was included in revenue from the beginning fund balance to balance the budget.
Expenditures
The projected expenditures of Miami district schools sum up to approximately $ 35,004. The allocation of raised money in the expenditure included allocation of $1,059 to the office of the property appraiser, $3,043 towards maintenance of personal properties, $2,557 to the management of the real estate commercial. Further, Miami district school county allocated $10,177 to the management of the real estate residential areas, $5,977 to the office in charge of value adjustments, board appeals and legal matters.
To effect the role played by the administration, the Miami district school municipality allocated $2,946 to the administrative support in the budget. To meet the demands of the public, the Miami municipality also allocated $2,725 to governmental exemptions and public services as a part of the budget. The quest for advancement technologically made the Miami municipality allocate $6,520 towards the advancement of the information systems for the better provision of services and administrative functions.
Capital
In FY 2012-2013, Miami public schools district proves to be bankrupt in terms of capital dollars. In the budget of 2011-12, Miami-Dade had about $90 million budget deficit, which together with the maintenance of its almost 400 schools and amenities were postponed to the budget of FY2012-2013. In addition, $92 million drop in property tax revenue impacted the funding of the Miami-Dade district schools leading to the drop of the budget of the FY2012-2013.
Accessibility of information
Despite the failings in the running of the Miami district public schools within Miami-Dade County, the pieces of information about the running of Miami-Dade County are easily assessable on the internet. Different sites give almost related and detailed information about Miami-Dade. Various reasons must have geared Miami Dade Public Schools into providing pieces of information about themselves on the websites, some of the reasons include the need for transparency, need for critical review, as a channel of making the public aware of the running of Miami-Dade, or as a way of making the public aware of the development and resource use by the management.
Most of the top officials involved in the running of Miami-Dade public schools posted pieces of information about Miami-Dade on the websites as ways of clearing their names of any cases of fraud that might have spread to the public. Some of the officials also must have had excellent reputations that needed to protect, hence their portrayal of transparency through exposing the management information of the Miami-Dade to the public.
Success of many Counties relies on the public opinion on resource use and administration; this is because the criticisms from the public make managements identify their weakness. Therefore, Miami-Dade management team must have chosen the web to have its management criticized in order to gather public opinions on how to carry out their roles.
In addition, management of Miami-Dade Public Schools is answerable to the public on matters of leadership, to effect this, management of Miami-Dade District Public Schools post pieces of information about the schools on the websites.
Individuals involved in budget decision making
The discussions and decisions concerning budgeting of Miami-Dade county is carried out by all members of the county who have access to the on-line services. The management of the Miami-Dade Public Schools unites the public to the daily running of the schools; through allowing the members from the public air their views via participation on online chats and mails. In addition, the practice of non-discrimination policy in offering employments grants all individuals regardless of race or economic status the opportunities of airing their views on the amicable ways of management.
Challenges to achievement of the proposed budget
For Miami-Dade district public schools to achieve its goals as per the outline of its budget, a lot of work and dedication has to be imposed. This is due to the current recession that has tremendously slashed its sources of revenue. In addition, the amount achieved from the sources of revenue is not that enough to cater for rehabilitation and renovations of the schools in the Miami-Dade County, the schools need hundreds of millions to cater for the upgrade of roofs, water plumbing and electrical systems. Miami-Dade district public schools also suffer from the growing debts it has imposed on funders, for instance it has an accumulative debt of about $182 million that is supposed to pay.
Miami-Dade municipality covers a broad area compared to other districts in the United State, due to its size; it gives the management individuals’ hard times in fulfilling their management roles. In addition, the members of the board have additional roles of ensuring the schools are run effectively despite the increase in school expenses and drastic drop in funding of the capital projects within the schools.
Political issues also contribute significantly to the draining of the anticipations of Miami-Dade County. This is because; in allowing politics to run within the schools, the schools lose their reputations leading to funders and taxpayers to stop funding them. In addition, the hatched plan of deploying some employees as means of balancing the budget will contribute substantially to the drop of Miami-Dade schools; this is because it will create political issues, which may result to lose of potential funders. The shrinking of the capital dollars also imposes a significant challenge to the management of the Miami-Dade district public schools.
Role of the public representative in the board
It is essential for the Management of Miami-Dade public schools to reconsider the inclusion of some of individuals from the public in decision making. The members from the public contribute significantly towards the success of the Miami-Dade public schools, by not only giving views on how to manage the schools, but also participating in the boosting of the local economy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, despite the well known causes of the failings of the management of Miami-Dade district public schools little is inputted to solve the problems. For instance, the management currently is plotting on ways of doing away with some employees, whereas it is suffering from lack of enough manpower to carry out some neglected roles within the schools. It would have been also essential if the management had incorporated some of the public members into to its board.
This is because the members from the public would have played a significant role in aiding in decision making in order to reduce chances of continuing failing in terms of management and performance.