Does Money Matter More in the Country? Education Funding Reductions and Achievement in Kansas, 2010–2018

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Education made recent technical changes reducing eligibility for the Rural and Low-Income School Program. Given smaller budgets and lower economies of scale, rural districts may be less able to absorb short-term funding cuts and experience stronger negative achievement effects. Kansas implemented a state-level finance change (block grant funding) after 2015, which froze district revenue regardless of enrollment and reduced funding in districts where enrollment increased. Difference-in-differences models compare achievement before and after block grant implementation to estimate effects of funding cuts separately in rural and nonrural districts. Between-state and within-state comparisons offer complementary identification strategies in which the strengths of one approach help address limitations of the other. Revenue/spending reductions are similar by geography but represent a larger fraction of rural district budgets. Results indicate that revenue reductions have larger implications for achievement in rural areas, where they represent a larger proportion of the total budget.

Inequality of Educational Opportunity in Switzerland: Exploring Regional Differences and Institutional Factors

“…This suggests that although tracked systems are intended to promote higher efficiency, higher levels of stratification actually increase inequality without delivering the expected efficiency gains (Van de Werfhorst & Mijs, 2010). Another finding is that cantonal investment in education is associated with reduced levels of inequality of opportunity, which is in line with the evidence that disadvantaged students gain more from increased school funding (Jackson & Mackevicius, 2021;Rauscher, 2020;Rauscher & Shen, 2022).…”

Contexts of Convenience: Generalizing from Published Evaluations of School Finance Policies

“…Abott et al (2020), Baron (2022), Baron et al (2022), Brunner et al (2020), Buerger et al (2021), Carlson and Lavertu (2018), Clark (2003), Gigliotti and Sorensen (2018), Guryan (2001), Jackson et al (2021), Kreisman and Steinberg (2019), Lafortune et al (2018), Miller (2018), Rauscher (2020), Weinstein et al (2009).…”

Introduction to Special Topic: Rural Education Finance and Policy

“…In one of the few articles in this special topic that looks directly at rural student achievement, Rauscher (2020) examines another funding formula change. Kansas switched to a block grant funding formula in 2015 following a 6-year period of state funding reductions for K–12 schools.…”

“…The formula froze funding levels and reduced levels for districts whose enrollment increased. Rauscher (2020) examines the differences across rural and nonrural student outcomes resulting from the transition to block funding by using both between-state and within-state comparisons. Twelve comparison states are chosen based on similar pretreatment achievement trends.…”

“…Twelve comparison states are chosen based on similar pretreatment achievement trends. Rauscher (2020) leverages district data in Kansas where 64% of districts are classified as rural. On average fewer districts in the other states were classified as rural based on county population density.…”