Variation in the Relationship Between School Spending and Achievement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: The Social Context of Education (Table 3)

Abstract

Progressive school funding – spending more in communities with fewer financial resources – is typically justified for equity, not efficiency. Linking county-level panel data 2009-2018 from the Stanford Education Data Archive 4.0, F-33 finance data, and administrative birth data from National Vital Statistics, we examine within-county variation in returns to school spending by initial human capital (measured as birth weight), child poverty, and previous spending. We find that achievement returns are consistently higher among counties with lower previous investment. Results contribute to evidence that equality and efficiency are not necessarily a tradeoff and that progressive investments in children can be both equalizing and efficient. Higher returns in areas with lower investment offer another powerful argument for progressive school funding: efficiency.

Authors

• Emily Rauscher, Brown University

• Yifan Shen, Brown University