Expenditures Streams and School Improvement in Kentucky: Does Money Matter?

Every Kentucky public school is expected to achieve the goal of proficiency on the State\u27s Accountability Index by the year 2014. Many schools may not reach the proficiency goal in time without a broad, multifaceted approach to enhance educational outcomes. A strategy to optimize the allocation of school district funds may contribute to this goal. Previous studies have attempted to answer the question does money matter? for raising school performance, but to date the findings have proven inconsistent. One reason for this might be that most of these studies have used a global measure of monetary resources, such as total per pupil expenditure. The present study explores the possibility that expenditures earmarked for different purposes - termed \u27expenditure streams\u27 - may reveal that financial allocations can make a difference