In this paper, we first offer economic arguments in support of greater consideration of user charges to fund public primary and secondary education. Second, to better understand why these economic arguments have not had further influence, a regression analysis shows the factors responsible for...

Primary and secondary public school finance reforms that began in the 1970's have failed to correct large intrastate spending inequities in the United States. The threat of judicial activity and concern over the stagnating effect of property taxes have caused states to again look at ways in...

We examine the cost structure of public schools in this paper, using frontier cost models that enable us to estimate sources of inefficiency. A two equation stochastic frontier model is presented that can be used to explain both cost and the sources of inefficiency. Using that model and data for...