JUE insight: The impact of school spending on civic engagement: Evidence from school finance reforms

Erdal Asker, Eric Brunner and Steve Ross

Journal of Urban Economics, 2024, vol. 143, issue C

Abstract: A primary rationale for public financing of schools is that education fosters civic engagement. However, existing studies examining the relationship between schooling and civic engagement have focused exclusively on how educational attainment affects political activity. We provide evidence on how school spending affects volunteerism and voting. Exploiting variation in U.S. court-ordered and legislative school finance reforms and using survey data from the NCES Secondary Longitudinal Studies Program, we find that exogenous increases in school spending led to increases in the probability that young adults volunteer, the amount of time they spend volunteering, and the probability of being registered to vote.

Keywords: Civic engagement; Education spending; Volunteerism; Voting; School finance reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 H72 I22 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:143:y:2024:i:c:s0094119024000585

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2024.103688

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