Political Economy of Public Education: Non-College-Bound Students

Sam Peltzman ()

Journal of Law and Economics, 1996, vol. 39, issue 1, 73-120

Abstract: My previous research showed that two important changes in the political environment of public schools--growing teacher unionization and a shift of funding responsibility to state governments--adversely affected the performance of college-bound students. Here I show similar impacts for public school students who do not go to college. These effects are found in analyses of 1971-91 changes in a school performance measure derived from individual scores on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test. Comparative analysis of performance trends in different areas of the same state suggests that the adverse performance effects of teacher unionization and spending centralization stem from their impact on state educational policy rather than on the direct operation of schools. These adverse effects are also found for students in the lower tail of achievement and for black students. They are not plausibly related to broader political and social changes. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.

Date: 1996
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/467344 (application/pdf)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlawec:v:39:y:1996:i:1:p:73-120

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Law and Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().