Funding is prioritized to promote equity across and within schools. Funding is prioritized to provide the support systems necessary to sustain effective uses of technology. Funding sources are diversified and sustainable. Administrators must realize that comprehensive planning for multiyear hard and soft costs of ownership is necessary to maximize technology investment. In addition to creating specific line items, technology costs can be integrated into budgets for other general categories, such as building maintenance, telephone, and supplies.
Funding is prioritized to promote equity across and within schools.
Effective schools, districts, and states explicitly address the differing needs of individual buildings, teachers, and students to provide equitable access to learning. Ideally, funding formulas should address structural inequities, such as population differences between rural and urban districts or maintenance costs between older and newer buildings. At the same time, those formulas must provide flexibility for individual schools to tailor technology investments to the needs of specific students. Such a formula recognizes the importance of per-pupil funding but also provides all schools with a base level of funding. In practice, this means tying the technology plan and budget to student achievement goals.