Discussion: The Distribution of the Costs and Benefits of Public Schooling

Abstract

David Holland has provided a basic contribution to the expanding literature concerned with the distributional effects of expenditures on education. He has ventured into the relatively untouched realm of measuring the distrubutional impact of tax costs and expenditure benefits of public elementary, secondary and higher education. Our fundamental ignorance of the equity issues involved in public education, coupled with the economic and social importance of its eventual product, provide ample justification for continued research in this field.Even though a valuable literature review occupies a significant proportion of Holland's paper, I will limit my comments to that portion of the paper that is original. Reviewing briefly, Holland's goal is to determine the distribution by income class of net benefits resulting from education. To do this, he compares the average per family tax costs for the provision of education with the average per family expenditures made. The difference between the two is the net subsidy received. Holland's basic conclusion is that the net subsidies from lower (as opposed to higher) education are regressive.