The No Child Left Behind Act

William Duncombe, Anna Lukemeyer and John Yinger
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William Duncombe: Syracuse University
Anna Lukemeyer: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Public Finance Review, 2008, vol. 36, issue 4, 381-407

Abstract: The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) imposes new requirements on state education systems and provides additional education funding. This article estimates education cost functions, predicts the spending required to support NCLB standards, and compares this spending with the funding available through NCLB. This analysis is conducted for Kansas and Missouri, which have similar education environments but very different standards. We find that new federal funding is sufficient to support very low standards for student performance, but cannot come close to funding high standards without implausibly large increases in school-district efficiency. Because of the limited federal funding and the severe penalties in NCLB when a school does not meet its state's standards, states have a strong incentive to keep their standards low. NCLB needs to be reformed so that it will encourage high standards.

Keywords: accountability; costs; education finance; federal aid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:36:y:2008:i:4:p:381-407

DOI: 10.1177/1091142107305220

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