Benefits, blame, and budgets: Citizen responses to cutback management strategies in public education

Public organizations derive value, such as positive public perceptions, from good performance. In this study, we assess if above average organizational performance can help preserve agency evaluations when facing a negative event—a budget deficit. In the context of K-12 education, we examine how blame for a budget deficit and cutback management strategies influence public evaluations of high and low performing school districts. Through an online survey experiment, we find that respondents attribute the overall performance of a district to test scores, not blame for a deficit or budget strategy that the district selected. Findings show fiscal management evaluations are lower when the district is to blame for a deficit and there are cuts to personnel to balance the budget. Higher performance does yield more favorable ratings when the blame for the deficit is on other organizations.