Although the public is best served by governmental agencies which have integrated the major functions of planning, managing, and budgeting, it can be asserted that the planning function is paramount. A review of the evolution of public agency administration in the U.S. reveals that until recent years the planning function has been largely overshadowed by management control concerns. This lack of coordinated planning has resulted in a myriad of incremental agency budgets based on the short term, parochial interests of individual agencies. The introduction of a Planning-Programming-Budgeting System (PPBS) to the Defense Department in 1961 provided the impetus for the rapid ascendency of the planning function in Federal program administration. Since PPBS requires public administrators to plan specific program objectives and to rationally select after systematic consideration of alternative means, those means most compatible with efficient achievement of interagency program goals, comprehensive longrange planning must supplement the traditional management and budgeting functions. Although the potential magnitude of PPBS as an administrative tool is yet unassessed, educational decision makers are expressing increased interest in the possible application of PPBS to school management. (JH)