Do Charter Schools Ruin Local Public Schools in Poor Neighborhoods? The Impact of Charter Schools on New York City Public Schools Resources

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Impacts of Finance Policy on Educational Quality

Abstract

Given recent policies such as Race to the Top that encourage the proliferation of charter schools, understanding the impact that charter schools have on the level and distribution of resources in traditional neighborhood public schools is important. Using data on New York City Public Schools for the period 1997-2008, this paper seeks to answer the question: What impact does charter school competition have on neighborhood public school resources? Findings indicate that charter schools lead to average increases in total, general education, and instructional spending per pupil and small decreases in the percentage of teachers with master’s degrees among NYC elementary schools. This finding is robust to several different measures of charter school competition, definitions of neighborhood, and model specifications.

Author

• Sarah A. Cordes, New York University