The Effects of School Funding on Student Academic Performance: A Study of Indiana School Districts 2007-2008

Abstract

Educational researchers have long tried to identify the relationship between public school funding and student academic outcomes. It has become a common belief throughout the years that increasing school funding will lead to increased student academic performance. This paper is an exploratory study of this relationship by scrutinizing it in Indiana's K-12 public educational system. The result of the study is consistent with the existing literature in that it has once again confirmed that though small in its effect, school funding does have an important impact on student academic achievement. However, this paper also suggests that this relationship is a complicated one that needs to be studied more thoroughly to arrive at a more solid conclusion. Since money matters in improving education quality and not all money given to schools yields the same result, policymakers should consider which programs the money will go to and how that money will be used. This may create a difference in student performance and, thus, educational quality.