In previous post, my colleague Dr. Tom Aberli and I discussed three forces that shape and influence district budget decisions: 1) needs-based framework, 2) existing financial management practice, and 3) human nature. In this post, we present how we can build on the existing infrastructure and processes with a new lens and framework to overcome the challenges brought about by those forces. Specifically, we propose to: 1) differentiate between operation and investment expenditures, 2) track expenses on alignment, outcome and improvement, and 3) re-orient how improvement is practiced. Operation vs Investment Expenditures As noted above, needs play a prominent role […]