Comments and Discussion

摘要

Two decades ago, the efficacy of primary and secondary public school spending was a sacred cow. Economists who noted the weakness of the evidence were regarded as out of line, found it hard to publish their findings, and were even viewed as being unkind to children (and probably to dogs and cats as well). But the piling up of evidence, including publications like Brookings' Does Money Matter? (Burtless 1996), gradually changed the situation. Now, policymakers consider an array of options to improve achievement-school choice, accountability, curricular standards, student and teacher incentives-and do not automatically assume that simply raising spending will work. However, the fact that public school spending was a sacred cow took its toll: millions of American students attended ineffective schools during the years in which many economists, in an effort to stick with the party line, turned a blind eye to the weakness of the evidence.