The last school to which I was assigned had a $14,000 art department budget and an $11,000 physical education budget.
The math budget was $1400.
The English budget was $1100.
The school had an award-winning PE department and a fantastic art program. (imagine that!)
The achievement scores for this school were mediocre.
The CRT measures were an embarrassment.
Sadly, central office didn't seem to mind this as long as nobody made waves, so I made 'em as high as I could.
If you do not display your emphasis on academics by allocating reasonable funding to academics, then you will have a difficult time convincing anyone to pursue higher academic measures. While I'm certain that some fool will tell me that there is no demonstrable relationship between monetary resources and group academic effectiveness, I'm just as certain that when I've demonstrated my emphasis on academics by increased resource levels for academics, I've seen results.
