Teaching Public Budgeting and Finance: A Practical Guide By Bruce D. McDonald III , Meagan M. Jordan (Ed.), New York: Routledge. 2022. pp. 285. $44.95 (Pbk). ISBN: 978‐1‐032‐14668‐3

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Sarah E. Larson
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13624

BOOK REVIEWS

Teaching Public Budgeting

and Finance: A Practical

Guide

By Bruce D. McDonald III, Meagan M.

Jordan (Ed.), New York: Routledge. 2022.

pp. 285. $44.95 (Pbk). ISBN:

978-1-032-14668-3

Sarah E. Larson

University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA

Correspondence

Sarah E. Larson, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Email: sarah.larson@ucf.edu

In Teaching Public Budgeting and Finance: A Practical

Guide, editors Bruce D. McDonald III and Meagan

M. Jordan curate a collection of chapters by leading

scholars from various subdisciplines within the umbrella

of public budgeting and finance, offering reflections on

how their various subdisciplines can be best taught in a

classroom setting. Based on the title, some might mistake

this for a textbook to be used to teach public budgeting

and finance to master’s or even undergraduate students,

but Teaching Public Budgeting and Finance is not meant for

the classroom, but rather as commonplace on the book-

shelves of any scholar who is actively teaching in the realm

of public budgeting and finance or who may be called

upon in the future to provide classroom instruction.

Teaching Public Budgeting and Finance moves past

simply covering best practices in the classroom and chal-

lenges scholars in the field to consider the inclusion of

emerging subfields of public budgeting and finance, such

as social equity public finance, in both our classroom

instruction and our collective lines of future research.

In the first chapter, “Teaching Public Budgeting and

Finance,”editors Bruce D. McDonald III and Meagan

M. Jordan provide an introduction to the book; offer

reflections on their own experience teaching in Master of

Public Administration (MPA) classrooms; and present

three pedagogical challenges, regarding what to teach,

who is learning, and how to teach.

Next, “Public Budgeting and Finance in Context”by

Meagan M. Jordan and Merl Hackbart provides perhaps

the strongest writing I have seen outlining the big picture

of public budgeting and finance within the larger field of

public administration. Jordan and Hackbart highlight the

key points: the role of government in the federal system;

the economy and politics; budgeting and revenue issues

and processes; long-term public budgeting and finance,

including capital budgeting, debt, and legacy consider-

ations; accountability, accessibility, and transparency;

information and data; and the emerging issues and chal-

lenges in the field of public budgeting and finance. Any-

one teaching or planning to teach an introductory class in

public budgeting and finance, especially at the under-

graduate level, would be well served by reviewing the

“big picture points”found at the end of each section,

which could be thought of as clearly and concisely

expressed learning objectives for such a course.

Chapter 3, “Revenue,”by Justin M. Ross and Denvil

R. Duncan contains practical assignments, including a

grading rubric, for teaching public revenues. As the

authors mention, the process of teaching revenues

“combines the ‘wonkiness’of fiscal analysis with the

contradictions of philosophy”(30). The assignments

provided by Ross and Duncan highlight the unique

combination of philosophy and fiscal analysis required

for conveying the topic of revenues to students in the

classroom.

“Public Budgeting Mechanisms”provides a strong

grounding in how to convey budgetary basics: the bud-

get cycle and timeline, formats and purposes, and

methods for evaluation and improvement within the bud-

getary cycle. Katherine G. Willoughby and Colt Jenson go

into substantial detail to help the reader understand best

practices in the classroom, including a suggested break-

down of a three-hour class period, which might be espe-

cially useful for early-career scholars.

Chapter 5, “Capital Budgeting and Debt Finance,”by

W. Bartley Hildreth provide a comprehensive understand-

ing of U.S. state and local capital budgeting under the

educational objectives of the acronym REMIT or “respect

environment, methods interpreted transparently”(77).

Hildreth provides examples of assignments that could be

used in a classroom setting; however, the “Bloomberg

Assignment”would need to be modified for those teach-

ing courses online or via other avenues where students

do not have easy access to a terminal.

“Financial Management”contains succinct and

thoughtful explanations of the role of GAAP and GASB in

the accounting process as well as an easy-to-understand

explanation of the budget cycle. Craig L. Johnson and

Yulianti Abbas provide a straightforward summary of

financial documents found in both government-wide

financial statements as well as fund-based financial state-

ments, a summary that could potentially strengthen the

Received: 29 March 2023 Accepted: 29 March 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13624

710 © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:710–715.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar