IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v102y2021i1p468-491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dividing Lines: The Role School District Boundaries Play in Spending Inequality for Public Education

Author

Listed:
  • Karin Kitchens

Abstract

Objective To highlight the role that school district boundaries along racial cleavages contribute to differences in spending on public education. Methods Financial and demographic data were collected on the 11,000 plus school districts and 1,800 counties in the United States from 1995 to 2011. A series of panel models was used to estimate the effect of segregation on differences in spending. Results Models show that white–Black segregation leads to increased variation in per child local revenue within counties. Within these segregated counties, districts with larger Black populations collect less in local revenue but have a higher tax burden. Conclusion In explaining differences in per child expenditures across school districts, economic differences are the most cited. Racial segregation often occurs along school district borders and leads to differences in per child expenditures through concentration of resources in certain districts.

Suggested Citation

  • Karin Kitchens, 2021. "Dividing Lines: The Role School District Boundaries Play in Spending Inequality for Public Education," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(1), pages 468-491, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:102:y:2021:i:1:p:468-491
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12886
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12886
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.12886?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    2. Hoxby, Caroline M, 1998. "How Much Does School Spending Depend on Family Income? The Historical Origins of the Current School Finance Dilemma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 309-314, May.
    3. Almquist, Zack W., 2010. "US Census Spatial and Demographic Data in R: The UScensus2000 Suite of Packages," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 37(i06).
    4. Alberto Alesina & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2011. "Segregation and the Quality of Government in a Cross Section of Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1872-1911, August.
    5. Oates, Wallace E, 1969. "The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and the Tiebout Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(6), pages 957-971, Nov./Dec..
    6. Theobald, Neil D. & Gritz, R. Mark, 1996. "The effects of school district spending priorities on the exit paths of beginning teachers leaving the district," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 11-22, February.
    7. Dhar, Paramita & Ross, Stephen L, 2012. "School district quality and property values: Examining differences along school district boundaries," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 18-25.
    8. C. Kirabo Jackson & Rucker C. Johnson & Claudia Persico, 2016. "The Effects of School Spending on Educational and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from School Finance Reforms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 157-218.
    9. Lassen, David Dreyer & Serritzlew, Søren, 2011. "Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy: Evidence on Internal Political Efficacy from Large-scale Municipal Reform," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(2), pages 238-258, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peng, Ying & Tian, Chuanhao & Wen, Haizhen, 2021. "How does school district adjustment affect housing prices: An empirical investigation from Hangzhou, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Xiao Tian & Jin Liu & Yong Liu, 2022. "How Does the Quality of Junior High Schools Affect Housing Prices? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Admission Reform in Chengdu, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Giertz, Seth H. & Ramezani, Rasoul & Beron, Kurt J., 2021. "Property tax capitalization, a case study of Dallas County," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Yu, Huayi & Hou, Yujuan, 2021. "A tale of two districts: The impact of district consolidation on property values in Shanghai," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Matthew Davis & Fernando V. Ferreira, 2017. "Housing Disease and Public School Finances," NBER Working Papers 24140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Davis, Matthew & Ferreira, Fernando, 2022. "Housing disease and public school finances," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Berardino Cesi, 2010. "Local Public Education and Childless Voting: The Arising of an “Ends with the Middle” Coalition," The IUP Journal of Public Finance, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1 & 2), pages 74-102, February .
    8. Hu, Lirong & He, Shenjing & Luo, Yun & Su, Shiliang & Xin, Jing & Weng, Min, 2020. "A social-media-based approach to assessing the effectiveness of equitable housing policy in mitigating education accessibility induced social inequalities in Shanghai, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    9. Daniel A. Broxterman & Trenton Chen Jin, 2022. "House Prices, Government Quality, and Voting Behavior," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 179-209, February.
    10. Barrow, Lisa & Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 2004. "Using market valuation to assess public school spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1747-1769, August.
    11. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    12. Stephen Billings & Thomas Thibodeau, 2011. "Intrametropolitan Decentralization: Is Government Structure Capitalized in Residential Property Values?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 416-450, May.
    13. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Intrajurisdictional Capitalization and the Incidence of the Property Tax," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 16, pages 489-522, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Cheshire, Paul, 2009. "Policies for mixed communities: faith-based displacement activity?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 30783, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Chen, Jing & Li, Rui, 2023. "Pay for elite private schools or pay for higher housing prices? Evidence from an exogenous policy shock," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    16. Sung Hoon Kang & Mark Skidmore & Laura Reese, 2015. "The Effects of Changes in Property Tax Rates and School Spending on Residential and Business Property Value Growth," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 300-333, June.
    17. Wildasin, David E. & Wilson, John Douglas, 1996. "Imperfect mobility and local government behaviour in an overlapping-generations model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 177-198, May.
    18. Christian A. L. Hilber, 2017. "The Economic Implications of House Price Capitalization: A Synthesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 301-339, April.
    19. Terri Menke, 1987. "Economic Welfare and Urban Amenities Across Race-Sex Groups," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 151-161, April.
    20. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:102:y:2021:i:1:p:468-491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.