Increased per-pupil spending across all 12 years of public school is associated with more completed education, higher wages, and reduced adult poverty, with larger effects for low-income children¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? A 10% increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school leads to 0.31 more completed years of education, about 7% higher wages, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in annual poverty incidence, with effects more pronounced for children from low-income families. → Cookson 2022

Evidence¶

Cookson 2022¶

Cookson, P. W., Jr., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2022). Building school communities for students living in deep poverty. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/121.698

q2 · i? · review · r1

The report cites a 2016 study by economists Kirabo Jackson, Rucker Johnson, and Claudia Persico linking school spending and finance-reform data to long-term outcomes for a national sample of children born between 1955 and 1985 and followed through 2011, finding "a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the annual incidence of poverty".

"a 10% increase in per-pupil spending each year for all 12 years of public school leads to 0.31 more completed years of education, about 7% higher wages, and a 3.2 percentage point reduction in the annual incidence of poverty; effects are much more pronounced for children from low-income families."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Research on school finance reforms finds increased spending improves educational and life outcomes, with larger effects for students from low-income backgrounds, including causal evidence from California's Local Control Funding Formula — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• A school finance reform analysis found that a 20% increase in per-pupil spending for a child's k-12 schooling raised high school completion and adult earnings — related
• Increases in per-pupil spending improve educational attainment, wages, and adult poverty outcomes, with stronger effects for low-income children — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Tamarack Institute's collective impact approach reported 10 percent poverty reductions in cities and positive impact for 202,931 low-income Canadians over 10 years — related
• A $1,000 increase in district per-pupil revenue in grades 10–12 was associated with a 5.3 percentage-point increase in high school graduation rates in California — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• A $1,000 per-pupil spending increase across high school raised graduation likelihood by 8.2 percentage points, and 3 consecutive years of increased high school spending raised college-readiness standards attainment in math and reading — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• LCFF-induced per-pupil spending increases caused improvements in math and reading achievement in districts receiving concentration grants — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Student outcome improvements from LCFF funding were more pronounced for cohorts exposed to funding increases for more of their school-age years — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• LCFF-induced spending increases of $1,000 per pupil for 3 consecutive years produced roughly a full grade-level increase in math and reading achievement in grades 3–8 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim