Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
School districts -- Iowa -- Finance; Education -- Iowa -- Finance;
Abstract
The problem of the study was to determine the reliability of using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Gross National Product (GNP) deflator to control the budgets of Iowa schools. The study centered on how accurately either index measured the inflationary pressures on a selected Iowa district from the 1972-73 school year to the 1979-80 school year. To determine the accuracy of either index, an Education Price Index (EPI) was computed using the financial records of the Corwith-Wesley Community School District. The EPI was then compared with both the CPI and the GNP deflator. It was hypothesized that both indexes would be less than the EPI and that the difference would be $13,500 or more as measured in current dollars. The prominent findings were (1) the CPI was not lower than the EPI, (2) the GNP deflator was 3 percentage points lower than the EPI or $22,073 lower as measured in current dollars, (3) all categories of the budget, except salaries, exceeded the CPI by 27 or more percentage points, (4) the non-salary items combined, experienced an inflationary rate 45 percentage points higher than the CPI, (5) the salary items experienced an inflationary rate 32 percentage points less than the CPI, (6) the salary items experienced an increase 39 percentage points less than the rate of salary increases received by the average of all \ manufacturing jobs in Iowa. ii The major conclusions of the study were: 1. The different categories of the school budget experience a wide variety of inflationary rates. 2. Categories of the budget, over which the school district can not control prices, all experience price increases in excess of the CPI or GNP deflator. 3. Salaries in the Corwith-Wesley Community School District are increasing slower than the CPI; 41 percent vs. 73 percent in the last seven years. 4. Salary increases in the Corwith-Wesley system are inadequate when compared with the average salary increases received by all manufacturing jobs in Iowa; 41 percent vs. 80 percent in the last seven years. 5. Teachers, by accepting salary increases for less than the CPI, are subsidizing the Corwith-Wesley Community School District.
Year of Submission
1980
Degree Name
Specialist in Education
Department
Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations
Department
Department of School Administration and Personnel Services
First Advisor
Howard Knutson
Second Advisor
Donald L. Hanson
Third Advisor
James L. Handorf
Date Original
1980
Object Description
1 PDF file (87 leaves)
Copyright
©1980 Dean W. Meier
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Meier, Dean W., "A case study of inflationary pressures upon a selected Iowa school district" (1980). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 1404.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/1404
Comments
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