Summary of Expenditure and Sources-of-Funding Data
The NSN Year 3 Survey (1997)

Expenditures

In 1997, we asked about expenditures "during the past two years or so" and report here on 99 schools that reported at least some expenditures in these categories in the past two years. (Others indicated all expenditures had been made before, or, more commonly, that the expenditures were made at the district level and the amounts were unknown.) Where only district expenditure data was provided, the amount estimated was the school's proportion of the overall district enrollment times the district expenditure amount.

The Table below shows six types of expenses reported by respondents: LAN wiring; retrofitting; LAN file servers; PC connectivity upgrades; links between LAN and external data lines; and Internet servers. Two columns of expenditure data are shown for any one type of expense: (1) the mean expense reported by those who had any expenses in that category; and (2) the mean reported for all 99 schools that reported expenditures in at least one of the six categories.

Table: Estimated Costs During Past Two Years for LANs and Internet Connectivity
(among schools reporting some expenditures in these categories)

Comparisons with 1995 Baseline Data

It is interesting to compare our findings for 1997 with similar data obtained in the Baseline Survey in 1995. In 1995, 69 out of 98 schools (70%) reported that some expenditures were made for LAN- or Internet-specific infrastructure. This year, 99 schools out of 123 Technical Supplement booklets reported such expenditures during the previous two years (80%).

In an uncanny consistency with the previous survey (see Appendix below), the 99 schools reporting any of these expenditures averaged exactly the same dollar total ($101,000 per school) as the 69 NSN schools responding to the same questions (albeit about cumulative previous expenditures) in the Baseline survey. Also, as in the Baseline survey, more than 90% of the costs were LAN-related rather than specific to Internet connectivity.

Among schools spending funds on Internet-specific costs like routers and server hardware, the outlays have been smaller (from $15,000 down to $10,000). However, somewhat more schools are making these expenditures (up from 41% to 56%). Also, the cost of PC connectivity upgrades such as Ethernet cards has been less significant (from $11,000 to under $5,000). On the other side, there have been increases in LAN wiring costs (from $49,000 to $60,000 per school) and in LAN file server hardware and software (from $21,000 to $27,000 per school). Retrofitting costs were somewhat lower than before (from $36,000 down to $31,000), but more schools are reporting those expenditures in the past two years than did so in the earlier survey (46%, now; 34%, two years ago). Overall, though, there have been relatively small changes since 1995 in the amounts and allocations of expenses on LAN and Internet infrastructure among NSN schools. This either means that the respondents were reporting ALL LAN/Internet expenses, even those that existed prior to 1995, or the schools that were already up to snuff in 1995 are still making equivalent expenditures. (Kind of like the idea that for technology in general, schools should not regard this as a one-time thing, but as an on-going cost of doing technology.)

Principals' Reports of Special Funding for Networks

Principals were also asked about related expenditure issues. In particular, they were asked about "special funding (e.g., technology planning grants, corporate financial gifts or gifts or equipment) that have assisted the development of network use," and this question also concerned the past two years. On average, principals reported twice as much dollar value as reported in the Technology Supplement survey booklets--a total of $211,000 per school for the 66 principals indicating some special funding compared to $101,000 for 99 Technology specialists reporting some LAN/Internet expenditures. However, the principals' amounts included categories of acquisition such as desktop computers, staff training, and gifts in kind that were not included in the Technology Supplement survey. In addition, the special grants the principals discussed may have funds expended over a longer period than the 2 years reported by the other respondent. It should also be noted that there was only a modest correlation between the dollars reported in the two questionnaires (r=.41; reduced to r=.25 when logarithmic values were used).

Recurring Expenses

In terms of recurring costs for network access (e.g., the costs for renting equipment or leasing lines), much of this appears to be provided by districts or through outside grants, and a majority of school-based technical people were unaware of the dollar costs involved in such expenses. Of the 51 schools reporting the dollar amount of recurring expenditures during the past year, 28% spent under $2,500, but 29% spent at least $10,000. Expenses are expected to be somewhat higher in the next year, perhaps because of faster lines being installed. Only 24% of the schools expect recurring expenses to be under $2,500 for the year while $31% expect to spend at least $10,000.

Sources of Funding

Our survey respondents were not asked (nor, if asked, would they have been able to answer) how much of their various expenditures were funded by different sources of revenue. They were asked, though, in general, to indicate which sources provided at least some funding for the expenditures that they reported. The technical specialist checked which of several specific sources financed the expenditures they reported, and the principal answered an open-ended question about the source of special grants.

Among 123 technical specialists, 84% reported district funding, 41% reported "special grants," 32% reported state funding, 20% reported donations from parents and others; 12% reported financial donations from businesses; and 12% reported federal funding. The "special grants" in fact were mixtures of competitive state grants, funding from NSN-affiliated organizations, and other private donations.

Principals reported a diverse mixture of sources of funding of their special grants including for the most part both competitive and statutory state grants, local bonds, miscellanous other grants, and private donors.

When we combine various answers by both types of respondents (principals and technology specialists) to several relevant open-ended questions, we conclude that regular district budgets account for the vast majority of school network expenditures, but that competition for limited state funds plays an important role, affecting perhaps 30% of NSN schools (though it would be hard to see a competitive source of funds scaling up to provide full participation by all schools).

In addition to regular district budgets and state sources, several other sources play a role in 10-15% of NSN schools. These sources are (1) local bonds and voter referenda, (2) a number of specific NSN-related affiliates (Pacific Bell, the Science Learning Network, and Maryland Virtual High School were each mentioned more than once), (3) private corporations, and (4) local individuals, groups, and foundations. Of these last four sources of funding, based on a quick analysis of dollar expenditures by schools reporting various sources of support, "local bonds/referenda" seems likely to have provided the largest amount of funding, but even that source is a distant third to state- and regular district funds.

Appendix: Report on Costs in the 1995 Baseline Study