This paper examines the causal effects of autonomy over teacher hiring on student math and science achievement using the random student assignment policy implemented in Korea. Under this policy, students were randomly assigned to different schools within their school districts which equalized the compositions of student bodies across schools. Using this random assignment, this paper examines whether students attending schools that have greater autonomy over teacher hiring perform better academically. Analysis of the 1995 TIMSS data finds no evidence that autonomy over teacher hiring decisions has significant impacts on student math and science achievement.