Dearest reader,
The Saginaw Township ledger is getting another page.
Step One asked how the financial numbers changed.
Step Two asked what happened to enrollment and staffing.
Step Three asks a slightly different question:
Where did the money go?
For this one, I went back through eleven years of Michigan Department of Education Bulletin 1014 data and looked at how Saginaw Township Community Schools divided its current operating expenditures.
Not simply how many dollars were spent. What share of the operating ledger went where. And for most of this eleven-year period, one number was remarkably consistent.
Instruction.
From 2014-15 through 2022-23, roughly 68% to 70% of STCS current operating expenditures generally went toward instruction.
In fact, in 2022-23, instruction reached 70.4%, the highest share in this eleven-year ledger.
Then something changed.
In 2023-24, instruction fell to 67.2%.
In 2024-25, it fell again to 66.3%.
Meanwhile, Business & Administration reached 12.4% in 2024-25 — its highest share of the eleven years examined.
Transportation also reached its eleven-year high at 3.4%.
And Operations & Maintenance had already reached its own eleven-year high of 8.2% one year earlier, in 2023-24.
Now comes the part where Lady Budgetdown is supposed to provide "context."
So here is the context I actually have:
The spending mix changed.
What I do not yet have is the reason why.
And I'm not going to invent one.
So the question is fairly simple:
After years of directing roughly 68 to 70 cents of every current-operating dollar toward instruction, what changed in 2023-24 and 2024-25?
Were these temporary expenses?
Staffing changes?
Transportation costs?
Facilities needs?
A shift in how expenditures were classified?
Something else entirely?
I don't know yet. But now we know where to look. That's the purpose of going deeper. Not to start with a conclusion and hunt for numbers that support it.
Open the ledger.
Follow the numbers.
Ask the question.
Then keep digging until the receipts provide the context.
Step Three is in the ledger.
And Lady B isn't finished.
With receipts and respect,
Lady Budgetdown
#LadyBudgetdown #WithReceiptsAndRespect #TheLedger #FollowTheMoney #FiscalTransparency #SchoolFinance #SaginawTownship #MichiganSchools #PublicEducation #PublicMoney
Sources:
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1014, Michigan Public Schools Ranked by Select Financial Information, Data Export Versions, fiscal years 2014-15 through 2024-25.
Michigan Department of Education — Office of Financial Management, State Aid & School Finance.
MI School Data / Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) — district and financial reporting resources.