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28 Harv. J. on Legis. 465 (1991)
Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money Matters

handle is hein.journals/hjl28 and id is 471 raw text is: PAYING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION: NEW EVIDENCE ON HOW AND WHY MONEY MATTERS RONALD F. FERGUSON* Allocating resources efficiently and equitably in public pri- mary and secondary schools has been an elusive goal. Among the primary reasons is the surprising scarcity of data appropriate for establishing the relative importance of various schooling inputs. As a result, recent research to discover how increasing spending might affect the quality of schooling and how improv- ing the quality of schooling might affect how much children learn has reanalyzed old data or has relied on data sets that are very limited in size and scope. Generally, aside from a few exceptions that this Article cites, the findings -of such studies have been ambiguous and unpersuasive. Breaking the usual pattern, the analysis here examines a large and unusually complete set of data that the author has assembled for the state of Texas. The data include a wide range of indices for almost 900 districts, in which over 2.4 million students attend school.' This Article addresses (1) determinants of student test scores, (2) factors that influence which districts attract the most effective teachers, and (3) how and why money matters. Overall, empirical results here reveal a complex pattern but one that is more consistent with conventional wisdom among educators than the findings of most past studies. The study has implica- tions for all states that are working to bring quality and equity to public education. Evidence presented here shows that differences in the quality of schooling account for between one quarter and one third of the variation among Texas school districts in students' scores * Associate Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Faculty Research Associate, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Harvard Uni- versity. Financial support for this project is provided by the Meadows Foundation of Dallas Texas and the Rockefeller Foundation. Marian Vaillant has provided excellent research assistance. The views expressed in this Article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of the project's sponsors, the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, or Harvard University. IThe text of the Article is written to be accessible to readers with no technical training. However, the Appendix has statistical tables that report results from multiple regression estimates. Readers interested in more technical and complete reports of this material should write to the author.

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