Contingency in the Local Provision of Public Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
1984
A synthesis of research findings addressing effects of population and economic changes on education supply and demand in rural communities also presents policy implications, to help with local decision making. Principal research findings listed include: lack of a statistical relationship between per pupil expenditures and achievement on standardized tests; teachers' salaries are determinants of school quality as measured by achievement tests; lack of evidence of economies of size for school districts, except small rural districts; and a consistent relationship exists among income, community wealth, school size and school expenditure levels. Principal implications for policy and future research are also stated: school decision makers must consider school system structure to determine the most effective means of meeting short-and long-run educational objectives when allocating funds, and research is needed to help school administrators minimize costs when faced with excess capacity and reduced enrollments. Also recommended are expenditure analysis to identify local factors that community leaders can modify to deliver education at least cost, research on relationships between local economic growth and local education, and consideration of local, private, social, and spillover benefits of education when determining total returns to education. An annotated bibliography describes 121 research reports published between 1960 and 1983.-Research projects (25) of the Southern Rural Development Center are listed. (MH)
Journal of Research in Rural Education, 2002
A study identified community-level characteristics associated with the presence or absence of a school. Data from the 1990 Census and the New York Department of Education identified 64 villages in New York with populations of 500 or less, 36 of which had schools, and 233 villages with populations of 501-2,500, 192 of which had schools. Results indicate that for the smallest rural communities, the presence of a school was associated with many social and economic benefits. Housing values were considerably higher in small villages with schools, and municipal infrastructure was more developed. Occupational structure differed qualitatively, in that places with schools had more people employed in more favorable occupational categories and more employment in civic occupations. While average household income was not markedly different across places with and without schools, income inequality and welfare dependence was lower in villages with schools. Although differences between places with and without schools were not as dramatic in larger rural communities, larger rural communities with schools ranked higher than communities without schools on virtually every indicator of social and economic well-being. This study shows that schools serve as important markers of social and economic viability and vitality, and that the money that might be saved through school consolidation could be forfeited in lost taxes, declining property values, and lost business. (Contains 21 references.) (TD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Municipal Land Use and the Financial Viability of Schools
2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, …, 2008
Local schools are primarily funded through local property tax revenues, which are tied to property values and the distribution of value ranges within a community. Values, in turn, depend on the mix of lot sizes and building attributes (improvement characteristics). Since lot size restriction limit the size characteristics of homes (bedrooms, garages, building square footage, etc), it should constrain the number of school age kids emanating from a given homestead and that a school district services. Each home, depending on lot size, should exhibit differential impacts on school district revenues. Similarly, if lot size and the magnitude of other housing characteristics impact on the number of kids emanating from a home, then each home would generate differential costs on the school district as well.
The political economy of rural school consolidation
Peabody Journal of Education, 1990
This paper argues that social, political, and economic circumstances provide better explanations of rural school consolidation than the advertised curricular, pedagogical, or administrative benefits. Modern views of schooling over recent decades emphasize economic developeent and the need to improve international competitiveness. There is a distinction between "schools" (important places in which people construct a social reality) and "schooling" (an attempt at systematic instruction of knowledge). Historically, rural Americans valued schools as sites for community activities. Eventually, reformers took the communities out of schools and championed the "scientific" and "professional" views of schooling. Despite research advocating small schools and breakthrougns in distance learning, rural school closings continue. To explain the perpetuation of school closings, three theoretical interpretations suggest that an ideology of economic development and social progress influences both the organization of schooling and the predetermined purposes of instruction. First, the classics/ theories construe economic development as inherently benign. Second, in a "citizenship" perspective, schools become sites for the exercise of the legitimated authority of the state. A third set of theories includes predictable periods of crisis that compel the state to take extreme action. Changes in the political economy of West Virginia have led to recent crises in legitimation and subsequent school consolidations. (KS)
2017
This paper examines the effects of declining student enrolment and population loss on one rural school district in the United States, as well as the district’s strategies to mitigate these effects. In the state of Wisconsin, the relationship between student enrolment and school funding destabilises rural school districts experiencing population decline and forces them to depend on local property taxes to make up the difference. In order to achieve community financial and political support, the school district in Forest Lake, Wisconsin, emphasises choice, transparency and new managerial practices. Using data from a year-long ethnographic study, the following analysis explores neoliberal educational policies at the state level that shape local educational policies and practices in Forest Lake. The Forest Lake school district is mired in a paradoxical situation in which being competitive in the educational marketplace equates to disrupting established school-community relations. The fi...
1992
This paper focuses ori the political economy of public education in depressed rural regions of the United States. The general hypothesis explored is that occupational composition of the community workforce and associated educational requirements for employment are significant elements of the sociopolitical environment for public education. Part I examines case study material on Pulaski County, Kentucky: employment patterns, public schools and related educational resources, adult population characteristics, financial support for schools, academic achievement, the dual system of an independent municipal district within the county district, potential impact of consolidation of the independent and county districts, direct support for public education by employers, local supply of technically proficient workers, and employment policies of local employers. The main finding is that major employers with needs for more highly educated workers tended to actively support improvements in the public schools. In Part II, 529 parents of high school seniors in 5 Kentucky and Virginia schools were surveyed concerning their educational attainment, occupational status, and participation in school support activities. Findings suggest that having a high proportion of well educated workers in a community reinforces support for good quality schools, and that this support comes through the overt direct participation of educated parents. Second, benefits of More and better education are mostly lost to a community when local emplcyment opportunities for the educated are not available. Part III discusses implications for rural development policy. Contains 21 references. (SV)