Other phrases often correlated with "budget concerns" include:
- Budget Crisis
- Budget Shortfall
- Belt Tightening
- Cutbacks
- Funding Crisis
These are associated with the dreaded and dire predictions such as…
- "Reduction in Force"
- "Staff Cuts"
- "Shrinking Cash Flow"
- "Austerity Measures"
- "Shared Pain"
What these phrases have in common is a focus upon "limited resources for unlimited needs." What these trite cliches reveal is a "Consciousness of Poverty, impoverished thinking and a focus upon lack of resources."
So many Words: So little Creative Thought
The fact that so many negative words and phrases are in play during educational management dialog and governance decision-making anguish indicates that the "under funding mind set syndrome" and its associated "concept-shortfall" is rampant.
This "short-sighted" perception and impoverished belief system permeates the thoughts and feelings of school district leaders who otherwise show good sense. This limited perception and narrowed point of view sets the scene, plays dirge background music and infects otherwise jolly souls with the "doom and gloom" of career expectations of shared misery and learned hopelessness.
Sidebar
This is an interesting phenomenon observed with…
- The Urban Myth of 65 words for snow among eskimos
- There are multiple "Eskimo" languages
- Eskimo languages are "polysynthetic." This means that nouns can be added together to perform the same function that adjectives perform in English
"In fact, the number of Eskimo words for snow is unbounded, because Eskimo languages (like many native North American languages) are polysynthetic. Polysynthetic languages allow noun-incorporation, resulting in a single word that is the equivalent of a phrase in other languages (Spencer 1991), having a system of derivational suffixes for word formation to which speakers can recursively add snow-referring roots. As in English, there is a handful of these snow-referring roots, such as for "snowflake", "blizzard", "drift". What an English speaker would describe as "frosty sparkling snow" a speaker of an Eskimo language such as Inuinnaqtun would call "patuqun", and express "is covered in frosty sparkling snow" as "patuqutaujuq". The concept is the same in both languages. This is true of things other than snow: "qinmiq" means "dog", "qinmiarjuk" "young dog", and "qinmiqtuqtuq" "goes by dog team"."
- See Wikipedia for exposure of this myth
- 165 words for tree bark in the Cherokee language
- The Cherokee language is also polysynthetic
- The kinds of uses for in the Cherokee language included the blend of the word bark to mean "cloth and paper," processes done to tree bark, how the bark was collected (by hand, with fire, with tools), what side of the tree the bark was found, how the bark was used (medicine, dye, writing, etc.)
- There are too many references for this. Perform a search at Google(TM) "words-for-tree-bark-in-cherokee-language"
- 160 words referring to "camel" among the Bedouins
- Link to a great article about camels citing this fact
Words that are important multiply, and these words present subtle variations to show distinctions, shades of meaning and different aspects and viewpoints.
Litmus Test for Poverty Consciousness
What this focusing upon "scarcity and lack" does is create a sort of "tunnel vision" and a shared commiseration among school district executive decision-makers, folks that should know better and who should do better to help their clients.
(Note: Clients are those persons whose care is held in trust. In the case of school district executives, students, teachers and district staff members are the executive decision-maker's the clients.)
By riveting their attention upon "limitation and lack," school district executive decision-makers focus everyone's attention (an attraction force) upon what they do not want to attract.
This does not mean that placing attention upon the negative condition is the "cause" of the deepening, depressed (and depressing) cash flow. The process involves the fact that belief systems tend "help" people see what they believe. In the case of scarcity-and-lack-focused school district executives, the process tends to warp and skew their decisions in favor of digging on the "slippery slope" of the money sump, and sliding headlong into its morass. They tend to expect the worst, and act like economic ruin is a forgone conclusion unless they take drastic, painful-to-their-clients, measures.
Sidebar
The Law of Attraction:
Some folks believe that one function of the human mind is the ability to attract into our lives exactly what we focus upon, what we imagine vividly, what we accept and believe as though this event or condition has already happened.
This process is called "Creative Imagination" that is different than the "Law of Attraction."
See Wikipedia™ for a discussion of the Law of Attraction
We are not discussing "mystical principles" here, but the tendency for people who are under stress to...
- Begin to narrow their vision toward"tunnel vision"
- Perceive threats more vividly, with heightened levels of threat and panic
- Perceive opportunities less vividly, if at all
- Begin to process information with their least strong thought modality, i.e., use their weakest thinking skills in problem-solving
- Communicate their stress in ways that diminish the confidence that others have in their insight and their decisions
- Sink into a "See, I told you so" defensive position when their ideas are questioned or challenged
This creates a the mental depression in thought and ideas that become associated with limited resources and lack. This is a "rut.", a fixation upon all the woes that "school district flesh is heir to, and a self-limiting process that leads to creative solution stagnation."
Batten Down the Hatches
Action paralysis (from panic and fear) infects the "creative thought glands" of school district executive decision-makers…those leaders who should know and do better, but who instead "circle the wagons" into a defensive position.
Their patented response: to "Batten down the fiscal hatches" and await (and wait out) the "long winter of discontent."
A ship at sea, when faced with a mammoth storm, perfect or otherwise, dumps ballast or cargo to increase buoyancy. A school district, faced with economic turmoil and money-sucking whirlpools, dumps staff to lighten the load.
Backwards, Knee Jerk
Of course, the knee-jerk reaction is backwards. What should be done is to focus upon increasing revenue and cash flow. Instead of "moan and groan" commiseration with colleagues and a "Woe is us" acceptance, school district decision-makers should become pro-active.
Sidebar
Really, the time to have taken care of this issue was "before hand" because no thinking person believes that school district executives are ever "blind sided" or "caught with their pants down" about the financial straits that they find themselves in from time to time.
So, what adaptation lifeboat does the panic drive school district decision-makers to cling to?
Downsizing staff, austerity measures and "belt tightening," early retirement incentives, reduction if force for "non-essential" programs…and other variations of "retro" thinking are the "bureaucratic life preservers" that the vision-challenged decision-makers grab for "dear life."
What should be Done
The pro-active solution for school districts to increase cash flow, increase sales, increase fees and make more money"preferably long before the "economic wolf" comes howling at the door.
Sidebar
This is only a metaphor. Wolves are much nicer than creditors and politicians. In fact, in North America, there are no documented cases of a wolf or wolves (except maybe rabid ones) having attacked people. This may not be true in Europe. But, even in Europe, the wolves may have been attacking the horse, or horses, and not the rider or carriage occupants.
Of course, there are some restrictions upon Not-for-Profit organizations such as which have 504 C 3 tax status. But, even if school districts made taxable money, it is an easy matter to pay taxes on profits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules for a not-for-profit organization maintaining their tax-exempt status is a comparison of the percentage of profit-making, compared to the organization's total exempt activities. The amount of non-exempt business revenue must be small, if not substantially related to the organization's tax-exempt mission. Since even small school districts have budgets in the multiple millions )or tens of millions) of dollars, school districts would be so lucky as to be making too much money by normal business means!
A Business Analogy
Here is what a business would do if it followed school district "worst practices."
In times of economic down turn (recession or depression), the "don't have a clue" organization would...
- Fire sales staff
- Decrease commission rates paid to sales staff
- Lay off production staff, managers
- Cut all overtime pay
What businesses need to do in times of economic down turn include:
- Transfer more staff to sales
- Increase commissions
- Offer productivity bonuses
- Offer bonuses and discounts to customers for increased orders
- Increase marketing efforts
- Increase proven advertising
- Find new markets
Options for School Districts
Even though there are some federal and state restrictions upon how a school district can generate income, there are lots of things that school districts can do to increase cash flow. Some of these options include:
- Grants
- Incorporate a Private Foundation
- Increase Fees
- Move to a Four-Day School Week
- Fundraising
- School Business Partnerships
- Selling Ad Space
- License Materials and Collect Royalties for…
- Distance Learning
- Training
- Professional
- Books
- Textbooks
- Curriculum Materials
- Software Programs
School districts can also explore lots of creative, cash generating avenues such as…
- Sponsor credit cards
- Google™ AdSense ads on the School District's Website
- Selling ad space on the inside (deplorable), and outside of school busses
- Leasing meeting space, auditorium space, and facilities use during the evening and weekends
- Selling services
- Finder's Fees
- Sponsorship of School functions by local business such as newsletters, event programs, and report cards
- Lease busses to outside groups
- Sponsor paid excursions and tours of the nearby local area for tourists
- Create local programming for cable community events and access
School districts can save money on "cash hog" programs, i.e., programs that don't pay off in increased student achievement by dumping these programs. (Note: this does not mean dumping the people who manage and operate these programs. Move the people to money-producing activities.)
School districts can also transfer unused inventory from campus to campus, or to nearby school districts.
Sidebar
The amount of "waste" in terms of stored supplies can be staggering.
Of course, there must be some incentive for district staff to turn in supplies. One approach might be a "finder's fee" of 10%, or a "materials swap" credit system.
If the school district cannot bring themselves to provide a personal reward to teachers, then perhaps the teacher can earn credits for their campus.
What not to Do
Some strategies that school districts should choose not to do are:
- Drop, outplace, "send the the glue factory" experienced staff in favor of "cheaper to keep" Newbies
- Cut working and non-working programs an equal percentage, across the board
- Keep investing funds where the direct connection to measurable instruction, learning and achievement has a negative correlation (Programs where there is no connection to real learning)
- Collect fees for placing soft drink and snack food vending machines in school cafeterias
The Real "Scary" Truth about Patron Support
The truth about what school district decision-makers can do is that patrons will support any reasonable "cost-cutting" or "revenue enhancing" methods if the district demonstrates a track record of building student achievement.
What is "scary" about this level of patron support is that, in order to earn and maintain such support, the district must…
- Operate in a transparent manner
- Operate in a scientific, research-based manner
- Measure and document improving achievement for every student
- Treat student achievement as its first priority
- Treat all students with caring, love and respect
- Treat teacher improvement, with corresponding levels of support, as its second priority
- Treat all teachers with caring, love and respect
- Find the leadership that radiates "Success and Wealth Consciousness"
- It is a legitimate business expense for a school district to hire a non-educator chief executive, even at double or triple current salaries, who will bring increased revenues to the district
- It may be necessary to search outside the education field for such an individual, since school district experience, earned while under the spell of poverty consciousness, will have "soured" the typical leader and biased this person's thinking in favor of "restriction, scarce resources and lack"
- A chief executive who brings in ten, twenty, hundreds of times their salaries, in the form of new revenue streams, is worth every penny of their salary
- The good will of teachers, students, parents and patrons is easy to develop. All that is needed is to treat everyone with kindness, caring and respect
- Existing, "no-can do" supervisors and decision-makers will become so uncomfortable in an open, transparent, caring organization that they will either change for the better, or leave to find another stagnant school district where the Philip of lack meshes with their limited world view
- Be sure to replace "money misery and woe" thinking people with "can do" people that exude the attributes of success and wealth consciousness
And what are the attributes of success and wealth consciousness?
The answer is that the right people will view and treat students and teachers as precious commodities. Success and wealth conscious leaders will show that students and teachers are more important than money. The paradox is that this attitude of success will bring in lots more money, and the people that are already in place, will be worth lots more because…
- Of their cooperation with the new, dynamic leadership
- Of their heightened morale
- They become intrinsically motivated to live up to the high levels of esteem that success and wealth conscious leaders place in them
Of course, when viewed through the lenses of Poverty Consciousness, teachers and students are viewed as "costs" and teachers are viewed as "economic liabilities."
If students and teachers are more important than money, it is important to show them by spending money on them.
Success and Wealth Consciousness
Other people, companies, foundations, entrepreneurs, business leaders, celebrities will give school districts money if the district operates "above board" and if the school district can demonstrate a track record of success.
The state of the economy has nothing to do with this. Success consciousness and Wealth consciousness just attract like-minded people.
Success and wealth conscious are contagious.
Let's how that you catch some of the joy and some of the "can do" attitude in the district where you work.
