ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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As a former Montgomery County student, I can attest that the County population has changed dramatically.
It still has some of the best pupils and a few of the best schools in the country as it has for 30 years, but it has undergone a tremendous demographic change of recent immigrants coming into the County (and often living in those houses left behind by the white middle class as they escaped into the McMansioned exurbs of the upper-middle class).
The article mentions that 12% of Montgomery Country students have "limited English proficiency", which was not the case 20 years ago when the recent immigrant population was limited to Langley Park.
I think it is wonderful that many recent immigrants are now living in nice houses in the suburbs, sending their kids to reasonably good schools, and moving up the economic ladder. These people would be living on the edge of absolute poverty back in El Salvador, for example.
At the same time, if I was living there now and couldn't get my kids into the last remaining top public schools around Bethesda, I'd send them to private school. Peer effects are real.
schooldatadirect sometimes has data like this available.
I ran a few similar analyses for Pennsylvania's school districts for 2005 which provides quite a bit of data. The short answer is that educational spending matter s very little at today's levels.
post one: % passing of FARMS vs. total expenditures and % FARM students vs. total expenditures
post two: % wealthy households vs. % passing
post three: parental degree attainment vs. % passing for both FARM studenst and all students.
I still have the data in an excel file if anyone wants to run their own analysis.
Here's the chart for Pennsylvania. The data is for 2005.
For school districts falling below the regression line the average total expenditures was $11,417.
For school districts falling above the regression line the average total expenditures was $11,214.
The overperforming schools actually spent less on average. Go figure.
Arnold,
Here is my quick stab at a chart for New York State for 2005.
-Mike