School Finance Reforms, Teachers’ Unions, and the Allocation of School Resources

Eric Brunner (), Joshua Hyman and Andrew Ju

No 2018-11, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: School finance reforms caused some of the most dramatic increases in intergovernmental aid from states to local governments in U.S. history. We examine whether teacher unions affected the fraction of reform-induced state aid that passed through to local spending and the allocation of these funds. Districts with strong teacher unions increased spending nearly dollar-for-dollar with state aid, and spent the funds primarily on teacher compensation. Districts with weak unions used aid primarily for property tax relief, and spent remaining funds on hiring new teachers. The greater expenditure increases in strong union districts led to larger increases in student achievement.

Keywords: School finance reform; teachers’ unions; intergovernmental grants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H7 I2 J5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-knm, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: School Finance Reforms, Teachers' Unions, and the Allocation of School Resources (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2018-11

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