How schools budget and spend the money they receiveAnalyzes links (or their absence) to educational goalsA candid guide to how resources are used in schools Based on extensive research and hands-on school budgeting, this volume is a systematic exposition of how money is collected and spent in the thousands of public school districts in the US, as well as parochial, private and charter schools. The volume explains both the paper trail of how money is allocated in budgets and justified in outlays, as well as the decision-making steps authorizing the collection and spending of funds. A thesis of the book is that money for schools should in all instances contribute to the promotion of educational goals. The book shows that the determination of, as well as the realization, of such goals is subject to complexities that result in questionable uses of limited resources--a result that has wide implications.