ABSTRACT
In order to meet Due and Friedlander's (1977) goal of having a social optimal distribution of public goods resulting from public budgeting and financial management policies and practices, this chapter integrates the concept of social equity into the teaching of key budgeting, financial and cash management (B/FM) elements. After describing these B/FM elements this chapter identifies some key competencies for each which could be used to develop learning objectives, and serve as assignments, for each module. Next the chapter provides a classroom exercise that integrates the core competencies of a student or a future administrator so that they can make the “fairest” decisions to cut services and/or increase revenues in the appropriate library district within a sample county (country or community). The proposal of this exercise is to show ways that ensure that a socially equitable perspective is included in the B/FM design/use/and analysis. After the case is presented, the authors provide several decision-making strategies to resolve the financial shortfall in this local government service and suggest classroom discussions that can propose various scenarios for a more equitable distribution of goods and services and the burden of providing them.
