School Rule. A Case Study of Participation in Budgeting in America.

This book focuses on the question of how citizen participation affects the making of the school budget, the crucial controlling instrument of modern bureaucratic organizations. The four communities studied differed in size, social and economic characteristics, and form of government. Chapter 1 introduces the topic and begins the discussion of the organization of education and the role of professional control. Chapter 2 presents the design of the study. Chapter 3 gives the salient characteristics--social, political, and budgetary--of the four districts. Chapter 4 presents an analysis of preparations of the operating budget. Chapter 5 characterizes the school committees' deliberations on the operating budget as a reaction to the professional educators. Chapter 6 extends the analysis to the involvement of the community. Chapter 7 evaluates salary negotiations in terms of citizen or professional control, particularly that of occupation groups within the education profession. Chapter 8 discusses whether particular forms of government machinery have an impact on lay, or representative, citizen participation in the budget and on specific kinds of decisions. Chapter 9 summarizes and draws conclusions and implications. The author finds that citizen participation is more an illusion than a reality. (Author/IRT)