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Bruce D. Baker
A Framework for Evaluating and Reforming School Vouchers
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Equity, School reformFollowing the 2002 work of economist Henry Levin, who laid out a framework for evaluating school vouchers, we provide an updated framework involving four major goals: equity, effiency, accountability and democratic goals. We review what is known from recent research around these four major areas… more →
Framework for Evaluating & Reforming Education Finance Systems
Tags: Equity, School reformThis paper presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating and reforming education finance systems to ensure equity, adequacy, and equal opportunity in publicly funded education. We summarize decades conceptual work, explaining our evolving understanding of the role and purpose of school… more →
How and Why Racial Isolation Affects Education Costs & the Provision of Equal Educational Opportunity
This article provides a review of prior empirical work exploring whether and to what extent school district racial composition affects the costs associated with providing equal educational opportunity to achieve a common set of outcomes. This prior work mainly involves education cost function… more →
Does School Funding Matter In a Pandemic? COVID-19 Instructional Models and School Funding Adequacy
The factors that influenced school districts’ decisions to offer virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction during the 2020-21 school year—the first full school year after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic—have been the focus of a large body of research in recent years. Some of this research… more →
The politics of progressivity: Court-ordered reforms, racial difference, and school finance fairness
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThis paper contributes to our understanding of American education politics by exploring when and why states redistribute K-12 education dollars to poorer schools. It does so by examining three explanations for intra-state changes in progressivity: court-ordered finance reforms, political trends… more →