Search

The expansion of charter schools--publicly funded, yet in direct competition with traditional public schools--has emerged as a favored response to poor performance in the education sector. While a large and growing literature has sought to estimate the impact of these schools on student achievement, comparatively little is known about demand for the policy itself. Using election returns from three consecutive referenda on charter schools in Washington State, we weigh the relative importance of school quality, community and school demographics, and partisanship in explaining voter support for greater school choice. We find that low school quality--as measured by standardized tests--is a consistent and modestly strong predictor of support for charters. However, variation in performance between school districts is more predictive of charter support than variation within them. At the local precinct level, school resources, union membership, student heterogeneity, and the Republican vote share are often stronger predictors of charter support than standardized test results.

Beyond some contracted minimum, salaried workers' hours are largely chosen at the worker's discretion and should respond to the strength of contract incentives. Accordingly, we consider the response of teacher hours to accountability and school choice laws introduced in US public schools over the past two decades. Total weekly hours of full-time teachers have risen steadily since 1983 by about an hour, and after-school instructional hours have increased 34 percent since 1987. Average hours and the rate of increase also vary widely across states. However, after accounting for a common time trend in hours, we find no association between the introduction of accountability legislation and the change in teacher hours. Education reforms are, however, associated with an increase in student test scores, presumably due to other types of changes in school and teacher behavior.

We use a difference-in-difference-in-difference estimator to compare changes in labor force participation, weeks, and hours of work associated with no-fault divorce laws, allowing for differential responses for married women with and without children. Although other research has found that the labor supply of women in general does not respond to no-fault divorce laws, we find that no-fault divorce laws are associated with increases in the labor supply of married mothers relative to married non mothers, even after controlling for changes in female labor supply in states without no-fault divorce laws and for property division rules associated with the laws. (Contains 12 footnotes, 6 tables and 3 figures.)

By most measures, the charter school reform movement has been remarkably successful. Since the first law authorizing charter schools was passed in Minnesota in 1991, 39 other states, the District [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2006.08.006 Byline: Christiana Stoddard (a), Sean P. Corcoran (b)(c) Keywords: Charter schools; School choice; Teacher unions Abstract: Public charter schools are one of the fastest growing education reforms in the US, currently serving more than a million students. Though the movement for greater school choice is widespread, its implementation has been uneven. State laws differ greatly in the degree of latitude granted charter schools, and -- holding constant state support -- states and localities vary widely in the availability of and enrollment in these schools. In this paper, we use a panel of demographic, financial, and school performance data to examine the support for charters at the state and local levels. Results suggest that growing population heterogeneity and income inequality -- in addition to persistently low student outcomes -- are associated with greater support for charter schools. Teachers unions have been particularly effective in slowing or preventing liberal state charter legislation; however, conditional on law passage and strength, local participation in charter schools rises with the share of unionized teachers. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717-2920, USA (b) Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, NY, USA (c) Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA Article History: Received 3 February 2006; Revised 5 August 2006

Cross-country studies of education and economic prosperity often reach conflicting results when using growth rates as the measure of economic development. However, growth rates lack persistence over time and may not accurately measure long-term economic success over relatively short economic horizons. To overcome this potential specification problem, we estimate the relationship between key education variables and the capital to physical labor ratio. Using both cross-sectional and panel specifications, we find that both the primary-pupil-teacher ratio and decentralized education finance are associated with a larger capital to physical labor ratio. The relationship between human capital and expenditures, private education, and test scores are less robust.

Students entering college have limited financial experience while making complex borrowing decisions. This paper examines a policy lever that may improve these decisions: high school personal finance graduation requirements. We use a difference‐in‐difference strategy to determine their effects on financial aid decisions of incoming freshmen at 4‐year institutions. Our results suggest financial education shifts students from high‐cost to low‐cost financing. The requirements increase aid applications and acceptance of federal loans, while decreasing the likelihood of holding credit card balances. Students from less affluent family backgrounds reduce their likelihoods of working and borrowers from more affluent backgrounds reduce private loan amounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of a student loan information intervention on changes in college major using administrative data from the Montana University System from 2002-2014. Our difference-in-difference-in-differences strategy exploits the relative trends for students at Montana State University above and below the cutoff for receiving a warning letter about their student debt, compared to their counterparts at the University of Montana. We find that students who receive information suggesting they may be unlikely to be able to repay their loans are more likely to switch to higher earning majors, with higher academic performers most likely to choose STEM fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the differences in legislation for charter schools. As stated, differences in success rates of the charter school movement in the U.S. have led to questions on why some states provide solid financial support for them, while others received less allowances in legislation. Focus is given on the forces that determine the strength of a state's charter school legislation including the role of state demographics, party politics, academic performance of students and the influence of teachers' unions.