Abstract
The Economic Geography of School Assignment
Track: Administration and Policy
Authors: J. M. (Mike) Pogodzinski
This paper uses GIS to compare the optimal allocation of students and teachers to schools under alternative regimes. In the first regime the objective is to maximize value-added to students (subject to a maximum cost constraint); in the second regime the objective is to minimize cost subject to a threshold level of value-added for each type of student. Which schools are underutilized or closed depends on the regime. Furthermore, which students have to travel farther to school and their performance in school depends on the regime. The geographic impact of underutilizing or closing schools is represented in the model. The costs examined are two-fold: operational costs of school facilities and transportation costs. The transportation costs depend on where students and teachers live and where the school facilities are located. These transportation costs can only be represented using GIS. The model is calibrated to data for the San Francisco Bay Area.