Funding for District/Consortium Programs
The initial costs of your district or consortium-based program are a critical part of your board’s decision to move forward with program development. As with all other programs, cost depends greatly on the size of the program, your goals, and the characteristics of your district such as size and population density. The total funding amount depends on several cost factors.
This excerpt from the BellSouth 20/20 Vision for Education report provides descriptions of these factors.10
Major cost categories include management, instruction, course development/purchase, technology set-up, and technology personnel. Typically, eighty percent of initial funds go to management and course purchase or development.9 In some cases, management costs may not be new if someone is being reassigned to this project. However, such costs are generally still included in any initial proposal. See the Budget/Staffing Section for more information on staff costs. Curriculum purchase and development costs also vary widely and are more thoroughly discussed in the Curriculum Section of this website.
References for footnotes can be found on the resources page or click on the footnote number for a direct link.