"Education officials need to furnish leadership in school elections.... An unsuccessful election reduces educational opportunities for students" (Kimbrough and Nunnery, 1971, p. 4). Who can argue with this simple statement? Providing effective leadership, however, is not that easy. Research and practice have yet to yield an election formula that always produces winners. Whether it is requests for bricks and mortar or more operating money, each election type and context are unique with no guarantee that a set of campaign strategies–successful in one district–will not fail in your community. If successful campaigns were not such a delicate balance of science and art, the key to success would have long since been discovered, resulting in significantly more school districts winning at the ballot box.

As members of the baby-boom generation collectively watch their last child receive a diploma from our nation's public schools, passing school finance elections is going to be even more difficult, promising tougher battles with the electorate and tighter margins between success and failure. School Finance Elections represents a marriage of research and successful practice, presenting a comprehensive planning model for school leaders preparing for and conducting school finance elections. Information presented emphasizes systems and strategies rather than specific campaign tactics. Avoiding a myopic focus on tactics allows school leaders to elevate their thinking to a more comprehensive and long-range vision of election planning. Each of the chapters elaborates on one of the ten elements in the authors' comprehensive planning model. Use of this model has reaped success in all types of school districts from New Jersey to California, and Lifto and Senden hope that it brings readers success at the ballot box as well.

For school administrators, school board members, school business officials, architects and planners, public finance businesses and, university professors teaching educational administration classes