Does Money Matter?

This compilation of essays, edited by Gary Burtless, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., addresses a simple question: Would larger school budgets boost student performance?

Scholars holding various viewpoints on this issue assess the pros and cons of additional school spending so this book offers conflicting evidence.

The relationship of spending to student achievement is addressed by Eric Hanushek, an economist at the University of Rochester, who concludes that "no strong or systematic relationship exists between school expenditures and student performance." Meanwhile, a pair of University of Chicago researchers found "a pattern of gradual improvement when school funding is increased."

Two Princeton economists address the connection between spending and adult success. They found that men educated in states with longer school years, higher teacher salaries, and lower pupil-teacher ratios earned higher salaries than men educated in states devoting fewer resources to schooling. An essay that follows reaches a very different conclusion.

(Does Money Matter? The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement and Adult Success, edited by Gary Burtless, Brookings Institution Press, 1775 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-2188, 1996, 296 pp. with index, $39.95 hardcover)

COPYRIGHT 1997 American Association of School Administrators
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