In 2002 the "Council of the Great City Schools" and its members set out to develop performance measures that could be used to improve business operations in urban public school districts. The Council launched the "Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project" to achieve these objectives. The purposes of the project was to:…

Colleges have always struggled with deferred maintenance, but several factors might make that struggle especially challenging in the future. Colleges grew rapidly in the postwar years and have a generation of 1960s or 1970s buildings that need major repair or replacement. In the past 10 years, colleges went through another building boom, adding to…

Colleges are focusing increased effort--and money--to improve the physical condition of existing facilities and address a huge backlog of deferred maintenance. According to "American School & University's" 36th annual Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Cost Study, the median college spends 16.4% of total college budget on M&O, up from 11% the year…

Spending by school districts on maintenance and operations increased in 2006-2007, reversing years of historic low expenditures. According to "American School & University's" 36th annual Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Cost Study, the median school district spends 9.19% of total district expenditures (TDE) on M&O, up from 7.58% the year before.…

Tentative formulas for calculating the cost of maintaining educational communications equipment are proposed. The formulas are based on a survey of campuses of the State University of New York. The survey analyzed the types of equipment to be maintained, types of maintenance, who uses the equipment, who services the equipment, and the cost…

This report compiles unit cost and wage rate information for fiscal year 1969-70 on maintenance and operation of physical plants of universities and colleges. Data are divided into unit costs per gross feet and wage rate survey. Each section is grouped by region, enrollment, and by top level of academic program. The appendix includes questionnaire…

A national survey indicates that the cost of operating and maintaining schools has risen more than 13 percent in the last year. The main thrust of inflation has come not through salaries but through goods and services purchased. (Author)

An inadequate (although constant) share of funding, a serious accumulation of deferred maintenance, and the decline in constant dollars directed toward physical plants all suggest that the overall higher education enterprise is underfunded. At the expense of future generations, we are spending down the capital asset represented by facilities. (MLW)

Deferred maintenance has been known to be a costly and growing issue on America's campuses. A new survey sent to 750 plant administrators is discussed. The cost of catching up and keeping up is more than most institutions can afford. (MLW)

A tabular presentation of cost-cutting measures, this report by the school board chairman provides introductory data on York County Public Schools, Virginia, followed by the district's 1982-83 allocations and anticipated 5-year savings on a range of policies. Cost-saving personnel policies include employing part-time secondary teachers, combining…

Maintenance and operations (M&O) requirements dominate the life-cycle cost of a school facility. Historically, facility managers have struggled to secure funding to meet these requirements. Many deferred-maintenance issues result directly from M&O underfunding. However, new approaches and technologies now enable facility managers to use…

Local education agencies expended 36.5 billion for current operations for public elementary and secondary education for the 1970-71 fiscal year. This amount represents an increase of 12.7 percent over the 1969-70 fiscal year. Data for this report were furnished by the State education agencies, and were used to establish the "average per pupil…

Compiled from annual reports submitted by the states, data on the total current expenditures (including expenditures as defined by P.L. 81-874 and P.L. 89-10) for elementary and secondary public education in the United States for 1972-73 is reported. Average daily attendance (ADA) declined from 42.5 million to 42.2 million, or about .7 percent.…

The cost of education climbed to $1,587.42 per student in 1977-78, exhibiting a significant 13.9 percent increase over the previous year. The increase was brought about largely by rising costs for instruction, especially teacher salaries. The only budget categories showing decreases were administration and attendance services. The national average…