Principals Struggling with School Financing in Turkey: Money Matters

Abstract

The aim of this research is to discover the views of school principals on school financing and to generate alternative suggestions for a better financial management system. For this purpose, 16 high school principals were interviewed through a purposeful sampling method from different socio-economic environments in a large city center of Turkey. A semi-structured interview form was used in this qualitative study, and the data were analyzed by using content analysis. The results indicated that the administrators are negatively affected whilst providing financial resources and therefore cannot devote enough time to their primary duties. The socio-economic environment of schools plays an essential role in providing finance. A crucial action that needs to be taken is to give principals the authority to generate income from non-governmental sources to finance their school's operation and renovation expenses. This would not require them to contribute any portion of this income to the central government's revenue