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The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach

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  • Gronberg, Timothy J.
  • Jansen, Dennis W.
  • Taylor, Lori L.

Abstract

Charters represent an expansion of public school choice, offering free, publicly funded educational alternatives to traditional public schools. One relatively unexplored research question concerning charter schools asks whether charter schools are more efficient suppliers of educational services than are traditional public schools. The potential relative efficiency advantage of charters vis-a-vis traditional publics is one of the mechanisms that supports the hypotheses that charters could improve performance for their students while using the same or fewer resources, and that the systemic effect of charters could lead to improved outcomes for traditional public students without requiring an increase in education sector resources.

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  • Gronberg, Timothy J. & Jansen, Dennis W. & Taylor, Lori L., 2012. "The relative efficiency of charter schools: A cost frontier approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 302-317.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:2:p:302-317
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.07.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William L Weber, 2017. "Would weighted-student funding enhance intra-district equity in Texas? A simulation using DEA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 377-389, April.
    2. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    3. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori Taylor & William Weber, 2015. "Centralized or decentralized control of school resources? A network model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 139-150, April.
    4. Horrace, William C. & Rothbart, Michah W. & Yang, Yi, 2022. "Technical efficiency of public middle schools in New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Toma, Eugenia & Zimmer, Ron, 2012. "Two decades of charter schools: Expectations, reality, and the future," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 209-212.
    6. Tavares, Priscilla Albuquerque, 2015. "The impact of school management practices on educational performance: Evidence from public schools in São Paulo," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2019. "School district consolidation policies: endogenous cost inefficiency and saving reversals," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1729-1768, May.
    8. Onrubia-Fernández, Jorge & Fuentes, Antonio Jesús, 2017. "How costly are public sector inefficiencies? A theoretical framework for rationalising fiscal consolidations," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 11, pages 1-19.
    9. Bruce D. Baker & Ken Libby & Kathryn Wiley, 2015. "Charter School Expansion and Within-District Equity: Confluence or Conflict?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 423-465, July.
    10. John D. Singleton, 2019. "Incentives and the Supply of Effective Charter Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2568-2612, July.
    11. López-Torres, Laura & Nicolini, Rosella & Prior, Diego, 2017. "Does strategic interaction affect demand for school places? A conditional efficiency approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 89-103.
    12. Son Nghiem & Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly, 2016. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: A Nationwide Analysis Using Gains in Test Scores of Students as Outputs," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(3), pages 256-268, September.
    13. Christian Buerger, 2020. "The Influence of Finance Policies on Charter School Supply Decisions in Five States," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 44-74, June.
    14. Nghiem, Son & Nguyen, Ha & Connelly, Luke, 2014. "The Efficiency of Australian Schools: Evidence from the NAPLAN Data 2009-2011," MPRA Paper 56231, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Buerger, Christian & Bifulco, Robert, 2019. "The effect of charter schools on districts’ student composition, costs, and efficiency: The case of New York state," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 61-72.
    16. Camanho, Ana S. & Varriale, Luisa & Barbosa, Flávia & Sobral, Thiago, 2021. "Performance assessment of upper secondary schools in Italian regions using a circular pseudo-Malmquist index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(3), pages 1188-1208.
    17. Julia Schwenkenberg & James VanderHoff, 2015. "Why Do Charter Schools Fail? An Analysis Of Charter School Survival In New Jersey," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(2), pages 300-314, April.
    18. Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Lori L. Taylor, 2014. "Applied efficiency analysis in education," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 19-26.
    19. Yahia, F.B. & Essid, H., 2019. "Determinants of Tunisian Schools’ Efficiency: A DEA-Tobit Approach," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(1), pages 44-56, February.
    20. Timothy J. Gronberg & Dennis W. Jansen & Lori L. Taylor, 2017. "Are Charters the Best Alternative? A Cost Frontier Analysis of Alternative Education Campuses in Texas," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(3), pages 721-743, January.
    21. Lori Taylor & Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Laura Razzolini, 2023. "The role of poverty measurements in achieving educational equity through school finance reform," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 109-127, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charter schools; Costs; School choice; Efficiency; Teacher salaries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

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