Who Bears the Costs of District Funding Cuts? Equity Implications of Large-Scale Teacher Layoffs

• In Event: Labor Markets and Economics of Education

Abstract

The Great Recession of 2008 led to unprecedented reductions in funding for public education in the United States. As a direct result of recessionary spending cuts, a greater number of teacher layoffs occurred in the years immediately following the Recession than at any other time in recent history. This study investigates how teacher layoffs were distributed across student groups in a large urban school district. We study the effects of a policy aimed at reducing the inequitable distribution of teacher layoffs across student race/ethnicity and family income. We find that this intervention was successful at mitigating the inequitable distribution of layoffs across students. Our study has implications for future budget cuts and teacher layoffs in districts around the country.

Authors

• David S. Knight, University of Texas at El Paso

• Katharine Omenn Strunk, University of Southern California