Effects of Capital Spending on Student Health in California, 1995-2019

• In Event: Policies and Health

Abstract

Social determinants of health are well established, driving stark disparities in health. Less is known about how to reduce those inequalities. Children spend much of their time in unequal school facilities due to unequal revenue for capital investments. Capital spending on school facilities could improve student physical activity and health. We use physical fitness test data from the California Department of Education, child hospitalization data from California Health and Human Services, bond election data from the California Elections Data Archive, and regression discontinuity models to estimate the effect of capital spending on student physical fitness and child hospitalization rates. We find that narrowly passing a bond increased capital spending by about $2,000 per pupil two years after the election. Most of this investment was on construction spending. This facilities investment improved the share of 5th and 7th grade students in the healthy fitness zone by about 7 percentage points in year 2 after the election. Passing a bond also reduced preventable child hospitalization rates by approximately 26 per 100,000 children and diabetes-related hospitalizations by about 12 per 100,000 children in the same year. Effects are not significantly different by district poverty rate. School capital investments improve child health and targeting investments to economically and racially marginalized districts could reduce disparities in school facilities and in student health.

Authors

• Emily Rauscher, Brown University

• Zixi Li, Brown University