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Does a Day Lost Equal Dollars Saved? The Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on School District Expenditures

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  • Thompson, Paul N.

    (Oregon State University)

Abstract

While cost savings is the primary motivation for the switch to four-day school weeks in many school districts, do these school schedules save school districts any money? To answer this question, this study uses a difference-in-differences analysis using a unique, self-collected longitudinal dataset of four-day school week use from 1999-2015 and National Center for Education Statistics data on school district expenditures. School districts that switch to the four-day school weeks reduce operating expenditures per pupil by 3.1 percent. The largest percentage reductions occur in spending areas where services are reduced one day per week (e.g., food service, transportation), with little to no change in instructional expenditures. Although employment in many of these student service subcategories holds steady after the switch to a four-day school week, some of the burden of reduced service provision is shifted onto hourly workers as spending on employee compensation falls for these types of services.

Suggested Citation

  • Thompson, Paul N., 2019. "Does a Day Lost Equal Dollars Saved? The Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on School District Expenditures," IZA Discussion Papers 12698, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12698
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thompson, Paul N., 2019. "Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on Student Achievement: Evidence from Oregon," IZA Discussion Papers 12204, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. D. Mark Anderson & Mary Beth Walker, 2015. "Does Shortening the School Week Impact Student Performance? Evidence from the Four-Day School Week," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 314-349, July.
    3. Alan B. Krueger, 1999. "Experimental Estimates of Education Production Functions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 497-532.
    4. Fischer, Stefanie & Argyle, Daniel, 2018. "Juvenile crime and the four-day school week," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 31-39.
    5. Thompson, Paul N., 2016. "School district and housing price responses to fiscal stress labels: Evidence from Ohio," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 54-72.
    6. Engberg, John & Gill, Brian & Zamarro, Gema & Zimmer, Ron, 2012. "Closing schools in a shrinking district: Do student outcomes depend on which schools are closed?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 189-203.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    four-day school weeks; school districts; expenditures;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid

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