David Figlio, the Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics and Education at the University of Rochester, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Figlio’s recent article in Education Next, “Can Banning Cellphones Save Student Learning? Evidence from Florida, home of the first statewide mandate,” co-written with Umut Özek.
FIGLIO: Sure. So this is the first study of a state or district level cell phone ban in the United States. It was from Florida, which is the first state in the country that had a statewide ban. And we’re doing work in one large school district in Florida. We found the following. First of all, we found that a cell phone ban dramatically reduces student cell phone use. You’d think that’s obvious, but on the other hand, maybe it’s not. We all know of stories of students finding ways around these.