Chambers, Jay G. 1978. "Educational Cost Differentials and the Allocation of State Aid for Elementary/Secondary Education." Journal of Human Resources 13(4):459-481.

The cost of obtaining education inputs generally will vary among school districts in a state. Educators and state legislators increasingly are concerned over whether and how to compensate school districts for variations in education costs. This paper reports on some empirical estimates of differences in the costs of teachers', administrators', and transportation services across school districts within the State of Missouri. Based on these estimates, an overall cost-of-education index is computed, the patterns of cost variation are examined, and the impact of state aid allocations is determined. In addition some conclusions are drawn regarding the stability of the index over time and various other aspects related to the implementation of a cost index as part of school finance policy.

The author is a Research Economist in the Center for Educational Research, Stanford University. The author would like to express his appreciation to Jerry Toporek for his very able support as computer programmer for this project and to Laurian Whyte, his research assistant, for her diligent efforts to see this project to its completion. He also wishes to thank Judy Collins and Lora Rice of the Education Commission of the States and Edwin Truax, a student at the University of Rochester, for their considerable help in assembling and analyzing the data for this research. The author would like to acknowledge the contributions to this paper of Allan Odden and Phillip E. Vincent of the Educational Finance Center of the Education Commission of the States for making the results of the simulation of the cost index in the state school-aid formulas available. Finally, the author would like to acknowledge the valuable suggestions of the two anonymous referees.

The research for this project was supported by funds from the Education Commission of the States (ECS), the Missouri Governor's Conference on Education, the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in Missouri, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Spencer Foundation. Work was completed under ECS contract number 22-77-11075. The analysis and conclusions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of these organizations.

© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

US ISSN 0022-166X

Return to JHR Home Page