%0 PDF %T State-Level Public School Finance: Effects of Legislation on Cross- and Within-District Income Distributions. %A Zuckerman, Peter R. %D 2017-05-28 12:18:36 -0400 %8 2017-05-28 %I Tufts Archival Research Center %R http://localhost/files/fb494m61x %X This study examines the impact of state-by-state public school finance reform legis- lation on the distribution of incomes within and across school districts. Over the past few decades, there have been changes to state laws which mandate the means by which state aid to local school districts are determined. These new laws tend to increase funding equalization between districts. Using data from the Geolytics Neighborhood Change Database (1970-2010) and the Common Core of Data Local Education Agency (School District) Finance Survey (1989-2014), I estimate how the occurrence of a state education finance reform in the prior census period a↵ects the distribution of median school district incomes across the state, as well as the distribution of household incomes within each district. I find that as a result of school finance equalization reforms, in- come inequality within school districts decreases after an initial reform, and increases after a secondary reform. Cross-district results are less clear. While the results are not significant, they suggest that income inequality across school districts decreases as a results of school finance reforms. %G eng %[ 2022-10-07 %~ Tufts Digital Library %W Institution