Immigration and spending on public education: California, 1970–2000

The evolution of education spending in California has received plenty of attention from both academics and practitioners after this state's education finance reform in the 1970's. This paper quantifies the contribution of immigration to the relative decline in elementary and secondary public education spending per student in California in the period 1970–2000. A quantitative model of school choice and voting over public education is used to perform the counterfactual experiments of interest. The model predicts that education spending per student in California would have been 24% higher in the year 2000 if U.S. immigration had been restricted to its 1970 level.

Research Highlights► Study effect of immigration on public education spending per student in California. ► Develop quantitative model of school choice and voting over education spending. ► Spending per student 24 percent higher in 2000 if immigration restricted to 1970.