Local Government Responses to Fiscal Stress: Evidence from the Public Education Sector

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nelson, Ashlyn Aiko; Balu, Rekha
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12211
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 601-U181
• 关键词: cutback management

摘要

This article investigates local government responses to fiscal stress through the lens of the K-12 public education sector, examining two major policy options available to school districts for managing fiscal hardship: (1) cutting costs, especially through layoffs, and (2) raising revenues locally through voter referenda. The article employs district-level administrative and survey data from California and Indiana to examine whether school districts exhibit features of a rational or natural systemin which their behaviors largely reflect fiscal pressures only-or whether they exhibit features of an open system in which nonfinancial factors also shape responses. In Indiana, district fiscal characteristics explain differences in cost-cutting and revenue-raising behaviors; there is little empirical evidence that school districts exhibit features of an open system. In California, both fiscal and environmental attributes, including poverty characteristics, average student achievement levels, and the enrollment of English learner students, explain school district behaviors.