MPS schools $11.2 million in debt: Decentralized Budgeting Leads to Deficits

Erin Richards:

Years of overspending in a system that gives principals autonomy over their buildings' budgets has put more than 80 Milwaukee schools into significant debt, to a district total of almost $11.2 million.

The most recent budget documents show Bradley Tech High School with the highest accumulated deficit of more than $750,000, and the Marshall High School building with a deficit of more than $557,000. Even elementary schools that are cheaper to operate have run up debt, such as Brown Street Academy, which had a fiscal deficit of more than $350,000.

The concept of giving Milwaukee Public Schools principals more autonomy over their individual budgets, initiated during Howard Fuller's term as superintendent and moved into place around the 1996-'97 school year, was intended to free principals from the slow-moving bureaucracy at the central office and give them more discretion over how their money was spent.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 21, 2011 1:10 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas