The Effect of School Funding on Student Outcomes​ in Tennessee Public Schools

Public schools in the United States are funded primarily through property taxes levied by local governments. As such, differences in community wealth and property value manifest as large disparities in levels of school... [ view full abstract ]

Public schools in the United States are funded primarily through property taxes levied by local governments. As such, differences in community wealth and property value manifest as large disparities in levels of school funding. Despite increased state and federal involvement in education finance, significant inequities still exist in public school funding. There are also substantial achievement gaps between students across the nation and within states and districts, typically measured by standardized test scores.

Utilizing an education production function to model the relationship between schooling inputs and outputs, this research explores the relationship between district-level per pupil expenditure and student achievement 140 Tennessee public school districts between 2012 and 2015. In order to isolate the effect of funding on outcome, the ordinary least squares and fixed effects models proposed control for three sets of information vectors that may also reasonably impact student outcome: district-level characteristics, community demographics, and teacher quality measurements. These models are separated by grade level and include binary dummy variables indicating test subject in order to determine whether the impact of school funding is variable across grades or subjects.