RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COST AND QUALITY AND STAGES OF EDUCATION FINANCING

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COST AND QUALITY AND STAGES OF EDUCATION FINANCING A. Relationship Between Cost and Quality of Education Cost is a determining element in the budgeting mechanism. Determining the cost will affect the level of efficiency and effectiveness of activities in an organization that will achieve certain goals. Activities that are carried out with low activities and the results have good quality can be said to be carried out efficiently and effectively. Explicitly, the authority and allocation of education costs are stated in Law No. 20 of 2003 concerning the National Education System, article 29: "Education costs other than educator salaries and civil service education costs are allocated at least 20% of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget in the education sector and at least 20% of the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget. Talking about quality, there are two underlying concepts, namely the absolute concept and the relative concept. As something absolute, quality is the same as something that is good, beautiful, and right. A quality product is something that is made perfectly and at a high cost, so that its owners feel satisfied and proud. In TQM, it is interpreted as a relative concept, namely viewing quality not as an attribute of a product or service, but something that comes from the product or service. Quality is said to exist if it meets existing specifications. A quality product in this relative concept does not have to be luxurious and expensive or special, but it must be original, reasonable and familiar. The definition of relative quality above is based on two aspects, namely adjusting to specifications and meeting customer needs. Education costs are an urgent factor in improving the quality of education, and carrying out the function of education to improve the quality of human resources. The level of education expenditure is an indicator of the State's financial efforts for human resource investment and shows the scale of priorities among sectors in the allocation of State finances. B. Stages of Education Budget Preparation Financial management in educational institutions (schools) is one of the substances of school management that also determines the effectiveness of educational activities. Financial management activities in educational institutions are carried out through the process of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, supervising or controlling. Financial management in an institution or organization is related to budgeting as an important aspect of planning and control. What is meant by budgeting is the process of preparing a budget that contains statements in the form of money as a reflection and performance targets to be achieved during a certain period and time. In educational institutions, budgeting is often referred to as RAPBS (School Revenue and Expenditure Budget Plan). The purpose of this RAPBS is so that school revenue and expenditure can be controlled properly. The stages or steps in preparing a school budget are as follows. • Identifying activities to be carried out during the budget period • Identifying sources expressed in money, services, and goods • All sources are expressed in money because the budget is basically a financial statement • Formulating the budget in a format that has been approved and used by certain agencies • Preparing a budget proposal to obtain approval from the authorities • Revising the budget proposal • Approval of the revised proposal • Approval of the budget (in Zahruddin et al., 2018, p. 8). In order for the preparation of the school budget or RAPBS to be effective and efficient, the steps that need to be taken are as follows. • Inventorying school programs/activities for the next year • Preparing the activity program based on type and priority • Calculating volume, unit price, and funding requirements for each activity component; d. Creating worksheets and worksheets, determining funds and budget allocations, and pouring them into the standard format of the budget report e. Collecting accurate supporting data for reference materials to maintain the proposed budget (in Zahruddin et al., 2018, pp. 8-9).