What Brain Research Can Teach About Cutting School Budgets
- Karen D. Olsen - Mid-California Science Improvement Program
Foreword by Susan Kovalik
School Finance
"Karen Olsen has put budget topics into perspective so that school administrators can make decisions based on what is best for children, not what is easiest and most efficient for adults. This book is a powerful guide in helping our principals see through the fog of mandates, policies, and red tape and get to the priority of students!"
—Terri Patterson, Director of Elementary Education
Waco Independent School District, TX
"This book boldly asserts that brain research should be applied wherever human brains are working. Not only can and should brain research inform how and what we teach in the classroom, it should be brought to bear in boardrooms and the school budgeting process as well."
—Linda Jordan, Associate Professor
Hope College
Make objective budget-cutting decisions that will truly impact student achievement!
In tough economic environments, budget cutting is a daunting but necessary task for many school administrators. Karen D. Olsen takes an exciting, unique approach by applying brain research to budgeting. Now educators can make the decision-making process more objective by using analytical thinking in school budgeting rather than responding to emotion, tradition, or outside influences. Providing a strategy-builder chart, this book
- Offers action items for putting the strategies into practice
- Helps leaders determine where money should be reinvested or reallocated
- Provides specific tips for working within a group decision-making setting
- Includes more than 30 analytical charts to aid in gathering needed information
What Brain Research Can Teach About Cutting School Budgets offers principals and district leaders a methodical process for taking subjectivity out of the budgeting process.
"Karen Olsen has put budget topics into perspective so that school administrators can make decisions based on what is best for children, not what is easiest and most efficient for adults. We used this book in our district with all our principals and it was a powerful guide in helping them see through the fog of mandates, policies, and red tape and get to the priority of students!"
"I’m very pleased to see a book bold enough to assert that the realm of brain research should be applied to wherever human brains are working and whatever challenges we face. Not only can and should brain research inform how and what we teach in the classroom, but it should be brought to bear in boardrooms and the school budgeting process. This book is brilliant and groundbreaking. Every school in America should have a copy in its professional library."
"Olsen addresses a current national issue with a focus on budget deficits and identifying a process for making decisions about budget cuts. This is definitely a different and unusual approach to budget cutting—a compelling contribution to the field."
"The entire nation is struggling with budget cuts, and this book is a very practical guide, a guide that has longevity and can be used time and time again with the same profound results. I would recommend this text as a must-read for anyone affected by budget cuts in education."
