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Title: Neighborhood Integration and Public School Spending

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: There is well-documented income sorting across neighborhoods within defined administrative boundaries like school districts. Using campus level finance and demographic data for 3,500 K-12 schools in Texas, I show that income heterogeneity across neighborhoods can be mapped to per-pupil spending variation across schools within a district. I define this function as the school spending curve, and argue that the shape of the curve is vital for predicting within-school spending responses to neighborhood income shifts over time. To test this hypothesis I exploit spatial heterogeneity in the income composition of neighborhoods receiving affordable housing, and plausibly exogenous timing of construction approval to construct school enrollment and income composition shocks. I find that policy changes determining the shape of the Texas spending curve over time are soley responsible for preventing sharp declines in per-pupil spending following the construction of new affordable housing. My counterfactual exercise illustrates that benefits from increasingly progressive education policy in Texas appears to be captured by upper-middle income schools receiving new affordable housing development.

Url: https://kdwhale.github.io/mysite/whaley_082023.pdf

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Authors: Whaley, Kenneth

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Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Education, Housing and Segregation, Poverty and Welfare

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