This brief argues that charter school programs can have direct fiscal impacts on school districts for two reasons. First, operating two systems of public schools under separate governance arrangements can create excess costs. Second, charter school financing policies can distribute resources to or away from districts. Using the city school…

Children's noncognitive skills, mental health, and behavior are important predictors of future earnings and educational attainment. Their behavior in the classroom also affects their peers' behavior and achievement. There is limited prior evidence, however, concerning the impact of school resources on student behavior. Some elementary schools…

This article examines the impact of entry costs on the likelihood that recent college graduates will become public school teachers. I combine "Barron's" ratings of college selectivity, data on the types of teacher certification programs offered by colleges, and NELS data that track members of the high school class of 1988 into college and into the…