Changing the relationship between educational financing and school shareholders through neo-liberal economy applications

The purpose of the study was to determine how school managers perceive the changes in the applications of educational financing as these applications shift towards neoliberal economics approach, and how these changes lead school shareholder alteration in their relations. For this purpose, pheneomonological research design as a from qualitative research design was used. The study group of the research was the school administrators who work in the official schools in Istanbul province. The sample of the study composed of 21 school principals consisting of elementary, middle and high school administrators in Arnavutköy, Bağcılar, Esenler, Esenyurt, Sancaktepe and Çekmeköy townships in Istanbul in 2017-2018 school year. In this study, demographic information form and a semi-structured interview consisting of 14 questions align with the purpose of the research were used for collecting the data. The data were analyzed with content analysis technique. The results revealed that the increase in privatization initiatives in education harmed equal opportunity in education. School managers also supported privatization in education, citing fiscal stresses in schools and low productivity of teachers. The inadequacy of expense items in the schools and the transferred resources obliged parents to support the schools. Financial problems harmed administration duty of school principals and teachers, reducing teachers' motivation and causing the parents to make negative judgments about these two shareholders. This trend caused confrontation among administrators, teachers, parents and complaints made by parents. These kinnds of trends harmed the school shareholders' relationships and lead to grievances. School-parent associations were not able to fulfill their responsibilities stated in the regulations; therefore, the majority of the financial problems faced by schools remained to be solved by the school administrators.