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Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES. EPAA is a publication of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University and the University of South Florida. Articles published in EPAA are indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, ERIC, H.W. Wilson & Co, and SCOPUS.

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Volume 17 Number 3
February 13, 2009
ISSN 1068-2341

Within-District Resource Allocation and the Marginal Costs of Providing Equal Educational Opportunity: Evidence from Texas and Ohio

Bruce D. Baker
Rutgers University

Citation: Baker, B. D. (2009). Within-district resource allocation and the marginal costs of providing equal educational opportunity: Evidence from Texas and Ohio. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 17(3). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v17n3/.

Abstract

This study explores within-district fiscal resource allocation across elementary schools in Texas and Ohio large city school districts and in their surrounding metropolitan areas. Specifically, I ask whether districts widely reported as achieving greater resource equity through adoption of Weighted Student Funding (WSF) have in fact done so. I compare Houston Independent School District (a WSF district) to other large Texas cities and Cincinnati (also using WSF) to other large Ohio cities. Using a conventional expenditure function approach, I evaluate the sensitivity of elementary school budgets to special education populations, poverty rates, and school size. Next, I estimate two-stage least squares cost functions across schools to evaluate the relative costs of achieving average outcomes with respect to varied poverty rates within and across school districts within metropolitan areas. I use these estimates to evaluate whether urban core schools on average spend sufficient resources to compete with neighboring schools in other districts in the same Core Based Statistical Area. I find first that widely reported WSF success stories provide no more predictable funding with respect to student needs than other large urban districts in the same state. I also find that in some cases, resource levels in urban core elementary schools are relatively insufficient for competing with schools in neighboring districts to achieve comparable outcomes.
Keywords: education finance; budgeting; educational equity (finance); cost indices.

Índices distritales de asignación de recursos y costes marginales de proveer prestación igualdad de oportunidades educativas: Evidencias de Texas y Ohio

Resumen
Este estudio explora la asignación de recursos fiscales intra distritales en los distritos escolares de las escuelas primarias de ciudades y áreas metropolitanas de Texas y Ohio. En concreto, se investigó hasta que punto los distritos que informaron ampliamente haber logrado una mayor equidad de recursos mediante la adopción del programa de Financiamiento Estudiantil Ponderado (en inglés Weighted Student Funding FSM), lo consiguieron. Para eso se compararon el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Houston (un distrito FSM) con otras grandes ciudades de Texas y Distrito Escolar de Cincinnati (también utilizando FSM) con otras grandes ciudades de Ohio. Utilizando el enfoque de función convencional de gastos, evalúe la sensibilidad de los presupuestos de las escuelas primarias con respecto de la población que recibe educación especial, los índices de pobreza, y tamaño escolar. A continuación, se estimo en dos etapas los cuadrados menores de las funciones de costo en las escuelas para evaluar los costos relativos de obtener resultados aceptables con respecto a varias tasas de pobreza dentro y entre los distritos escolares en las zonas metropolitanas. Utilice estas estimaciones para evaluar si en promedio las escuelas de los núcleos urbanos gastaron recursos suficientes para competir con escuelas en otros distritos vecinos en un mismo Núcleo Basado en Área Estadística (en inglés Core Based Statistical Area). En primer lugar, encontré que la información ampliamente reportada acerca del éxito de las FSM historias no proporciona una financiación más previsible con respecto a las necesidades de los estudiantes que la proporcionada por otros distritos urbanos grandes en un mismo estado. También encontré que en algunos casos, los niveles de recursos en el núcleo urbano de las escuelas son relativamente insuficiente para lograr resultados comparables a los de las escuelas en distritos vecinos.
Palabras clave: Educación Finanzas, Presupuesto, Equidad de la Educación (Finanzas), Índices de Costo.

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some rights reserved Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute this abstract and the associated article, as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and Education Policy Analysis Archives, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or EPAA. EPAA is published jointly by the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University and the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Articles are indexed by Directory of Open Access Journals, ERIC, H.W. Wilson & Co, and SCOPUS. Please contribute commentary at http://epaa.info/wordpress/ and send errata notes to Sherman Dorn (epaa-editor@shermandorn.com).

 

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