The Relationship between School Funding and Student Achievement in Kansas Public Schools

2014

EPAA

Abstract:The Great Recession's effect on state school finance systems was unlike previous downturns in the early 1990s and early 2000s in that it a) involved a greater loss of taxable income in many states, thus greater loss to state general fund revenues, b) also involved a substantial collapse of housing markets and related reduction or at least leveling of growth of taxable property wealth, c) but also involved a substantive infusion of federal "fiscal stabilization" aid to be used to fill holes in state general aid formulas. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effects of the recession on equity of state school funding systems with respect to child poverty concentrations. Using school district level panel data from 1993 to 2011, we evaluate the interplay between local, state and federal source revenues through the course of the recent recession by comparison with the less severe economic downturn of the early 2000s. Then using state level estimates of elasticities between revenue and spending measures and district poverty rates, we estimate whether changes in the distribution of state, local or federal revenue contribute most to changes in overall equity of current spending and whether those contributions changed during the recent recession. Keywords: school funding; fiscal stabilization; recession; poverty; equity Evaluando el impacto de la recesión en los sistemas estatales de financiamiento educativo Resumen: El efecto de la Gran Recesión en los sistemas estatales de financiamiento educativo fue epaa aape Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 22 No. 91 2 diferente a las crisis anteriores en la década de 1990 y principios de 2000, ya que a) implicó una mayor pérdida de renta imponible en muchos estados, por lo tanto una mayor pérdida de ingresos del fondo general, b) también implicó una caída sustancial de los mercados de vivienda y la reducción relacionada o, al menos, la nivelación del crecimiento de la riqueza propiedad imponible, c), también involucró una infusión sustantiva de ayuda federal para la "estabilización fiscal" que se utilizó para cubrir déficits en las fórmulas generales de sobre de los presupuestos estatales. El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar los efectos de la recesión en la equidad de los sistemas de financiación de escuelas estatales en relación a las áreas de concentración de pobreza infantil. Utilizando datos de panel a nivel de distrito escolar 1993-2011, se evalúa la interacción entre los ingresos de fuentes locales, estatales y federales a través del curso de la reciente recesión en comparación con la crisis económica de la década de 2000 que fue menos severa. Luego, utilizando estimaciones a nivel estatal de las elasticidades entre las medidas de ingresos y de gastos y los índices de pobreza del distrito, se estimó si más cambios en la distribución de ingresos estatales, locales o federales contribuyen a los cambios en el patrimonio neto total del gasto corriente y si esas contribuciones cambiaron durante la reciente recesión. Palabras clave: financiamiento escolar;...

Section: Do School Finance Reforms Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the recession’s impact on state school finance systems

2014

EPAA

“…These studies would cherry‐pick anecdotal information on either or both (a) poorly funded schools that have high outcomes or (b) well‐funded schools that have low outcomes (see Evers & Clopton, ; Walberg, ). In an equally problematic analysis, Neymotin () set out to show that massive court‐ordered infusions of funding in Kansas following Montoy v. Kansas led to no substantive improvements in student outcomes. However, Neymotin evaluated changes in school funding from 1997 to 2006, but the first additional funding infused following the January 2005 Supreme Court decision occurred in the 2005–2006 school year, the end point of Neymotin's outcome data.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the Gap: 20 Years of Progress and Retrenchment in School Funding and Achievement Gaps

ETS Research Report Series

Farrie

Sciarra

2016

Although there has been significant progress in the long term, achievement gaps among the nation's students persist. Many factors have contributed to the disparities in outcomes, and societal changes can explain progress, or lack thereof, over the past few decades. This is well documented in the 2010 Educational Testing Service (ETS) report Black–White Achievement Gaps: When Progress Stopped, which explored achievement gap trends and identified the changing conditions that may have influenced those trends. In this report, we extend that work by focusing on the relationship between school funding, resource allocation, and achievement among students from low‐income families. We tackle the assumption that greater resources, delivered through fair and equitable school funding systems, could help raise academic outcomes and reduce the achievement gap. The goal is to provide convincing evidence that state finance policies have consequences in terms of the level and distribution of resources, here limited to staffing characteristics, and that the resulting allocation of resources is also associated with changes in both the level of academic achievement and achievement gaps between low‐income children and their peers. Using more than 20 years of revenue and expenditure data for schools, we empirically test the idea that increasing investments in schools generally is associated with greater access to resources as measured by staffing ratios, class sizes, and the competitiveness of teacher wages. When the findings presented here are considered with the strong body of academic literature on the positive relationship between substantive and sustained state school finance reforms and improved student outcomes, a strong case can be made that state and federal policy focused on improving state finance systems to ensure equitable funding and improving access to resources for children from low‐income families is a key strategy to improve outcomes and close achievement gaps.

“…In an equally problematic analysis, Neymotin ( 2010 ) (Baker and Welner 2011 ). Finally, Greene and Trivitt ( 2008 ) present a study in which they claim to show that courtordered school fi nance reforms led to no substantive improvements in student outcomes.…”

Section: Money and School Finance Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, Greene and Trivitt ( 2008 ) present a study in which they claim to show that courtordered school fi nance reforms led to no substantive improvements in student outcomes. However, while those authors offer the conclusion that court-ordered funding increases had no effect, they test only whether the presence of a court order is associated with changes in outcomes; they never once measure whether substantive school fi nance reforms followed the court order (also see Neymotin 2010 ).…”

Section: Money and School Finance Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Distribution of Educational Opportunities: 1993–2012

The Dynamics of Opportunity in America

Farrie

Sciarra

2016

Over the past several decades, many states have pursued substantive changes to their state school fi nance systems. Some reforms have been stimulated by judicial pressure resulting from state constitutional challenges and others have been initiated by legislatures. But despite gains in school funding equity and adequacy made over the past few decades, in recent years we have witnessed a substantial retreat from equity and adequacy. This chapter builds on the national school funding fairness report annually published by the Education Law Center. We track school funding fairness (the relative targeting of funding to districts serving economically disadvantaged children) for all states from 1993 to 2012. This chapter explores in greater depth the consequences of school funding levels, distributions, and changes in specifi c classroom resources provided in schools. We fi nd that states and districts applying more effort-spending a greater share of their fi scal capacity on schools-generally spend more on schools, and that these higher spending levels translate into higher staffi ng levels and lower class sizes as well as more competitive teacher wages.