Three Essays Examining Increases in State Elementary-Secondary Education Spending

Abstract

State investments in public elementary-secondary education (i.e., pre-kindergarten through grade 12) have steadily increased over the past sixty years. Each of the chapters in this dissertation examines a different aspect of these increases in state education spending. In the first chapter, I examine how state legislatures pay for increases in state education spending that result from school finance reforms. The second chapter investigates state-specific changes and trends in state education spending from 1960 to the present. The third chapter examines why state education spending has been rising by providing a description of the events preceding positive shifts or changepoints in state education investments.