Grunwald Survey

Positive Attitudes Mitigate Budget Threats

In this section:

• What Happens When Budgets are Cut?


• Visionary Leadership Sustains Technology Gains


• Benefits, Challenges Highlight Technology Needs


• Quick Guide to District Characteristics in this Survey Report


• The Key Challenge: People, Not Equipment


• Is Technology Available to Students?

A startling finding that pervades our survey results is the differences in attitudes about technology and the effect that attitudes have on technology purchases and use. Where there's a will to deepen schools' commitment to technology, there seems to be a way - and this seems to be more important than funding. This presents an enormous opportunity for schools to build understanding and support for technology both in the community and among educators themselves.

A majority of school leaders believe that their communities are more supportive of technology purchases for classroom use than they were three years ago - a good sign that the public increasingly understands that students need to be able to use technology during regular classroom activities. Three times as many school leaders (53 percent) say their communities are more willing to dedicate resources in this area than say they are less willing (18 percent).

Community attitudes toward technology seem to yield results in the bottom line of technology budgets. School leaders whose district budgets for classroom technology increased over the past three years are particularly likely to cite strongly supportive communities (70 percent). By contrast, school leaders whose district budgets for classroom technology have decreased over the past three years are the least likely to cite strongly supportive communities (38 percent).

Likewise, 40 percent of school leaders report that parent groups in their districts are more supportive of school purchases outside the school budget than three years ago, compared to 13 percent who say parent groups are less supportive. Again, the districts that have experienced increases in their technology budgets are most likely to report increased support from parent groups. These survey findings indicate a clear connection between community support and spending on classroom technology. There is a similar, albeit weaker, correlation between community support and technology budgets for administrative purposes. More than twice as many school leaders say their communities are more willing to dedicate resources in this area (42 percent) than say they are less willing (20 percent). School leaders whose districts have experienced recent budget increases for administrative technology and districts in the South are particularly likely to cite community support in this area. Again, school leaders whose districts have experienced budget declines for administrative technology are the most likely to say that community support has declined as well. Moreover, as noted on the below sidebar (What Happens When Budgets Are Cut?), some districts face technology budget cuts not by putting their plans on hold, but by repurposing other funds or even going out into the community to raise the funds they need. While this tack clearly is not an optimum long-term strategy, it can mitigate funding shortfalls in lean budget years. High-tech districts, which already are committed to technology and are likely to track their return on investments, are among the most likely to try these alternate funding avenues. These districts can, perhaps, make the best case to their communities for continued support of technology.