School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lafortune, Julien; Rothstein, Jesse; Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20160567
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1-26
• 关键词: education; matter; investments; RESOURCES; earnings; QUALITY

摘要

We study the impact of post-1990 school finance reforms, during the so-called adequacy era, on absolute and relative spending and achievement in low-income school districts. Using cm event study research. design that exploits the apparent randomness of reform timing, we show that reforms lead to sharp, inunediate, and sustained increases in spending in low-income school districts. Using representative samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, we find that reforms cause increases in the achievement of students in these districts, phasing in gradually over the years following the reform. The implied effect of school resources on educational achievement is large.