The Burdens on Big City Schools

John H. Fisher , "Race and Reconciliation: The Role of the School," Daedalus (Winter 1966) pp. 24-44.

This analysis is more fully developed in the author's case study of the Boston schools, "Distribution and Production in a Big City Elementary School System," dissertation, Yale University, 1966; see also Lawrence W. O'Connell, "The Citizen Reform Group in School Politics: The Boston Experience, 1960-65," dissertation, Syracuse University, 1967.

Council of State Governments ; Book of the States, 1962-63 (Chicago, Illinois).

In Figure 1 the curves of u_i, u_j, u_k represent the preferences of a community of individuals of similar taste. The community is indifferent among all combinations of schools and other goods through which a given curve passes. The lines further from the origin 0 represent more preferred combinations. To maximize its welfare, the community should purchase that bundle of schools and other goods along its income line Y¹Y which touches the highest indifference curve. The community is best off purchasing OA of schooling and OA¹ of other goods because its income line touches the highest indifference curve u_j at point Z.

Robert Warren , "A Metropolitan Services Market Model of Metropolitan Organization," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 30 (August 1964) pp. 193-204.

A system of neighborhood schools is the division of a city into attendance districts surrounding schools. Under its narrowest interpretation, the system permits children to attend only the public school(s) in the district in which they reside. In Boston, a neighborhood elementary school system is modified by procedures which allow transfers to districts defined as "uncrowded" if the student bears the cost of transportation. The attendance districts for Junior and Senior High Schools in Boston are less rigidly applied, if at all.

Coefficients of variation provide a rough measure of segregation by socio-economic group for the 56 school districts in Boston. Residential segregation of white collar (.41) and upper income group (.29) is less than that of the Irish (.63). The residential segregation of Negroes (.31) is less than school segregation (.51) because larger proportions of Negroes than whites attend neighborhood public schools.

Tiebout, "A Pure Theory."

Werner Z. Hirsch , Elbert W. Segelhorst , and Morton J. Marcus , "Spillover of Public Education Costs and Benefits," Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles (1964).

Edward C. Banfield and James Q. Wilson , "Public Regardingness as a Value Premise in Voting Behavior," American Political Science Review, 5.3 (December 1964) pp. 376-887. Banfield and Wilson identify the residual `private regarding' voters; the very poor, largely Negro, who tend to favor public spending because they have nothing to lose.

Herbert A. Simon , "Theories of Decision-Making in Economics," Papers and Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 49 (May 1959) pp. 253-283.

Edward C. Banfield , "The Political Implications of Metropolitan Growth," Daedalus (Winter 1961) pp. 61-79.

also O'Connell, "The Citizen Reform Group."

The Boston Herald-Traveler series on the Boston Schools (March-April 1966) compares the recruitment pattern of city and suburban schools. The authors of the series argue that the inbred bureaucracy makes no serious effort to recruit quality teachers comparable to other big cities.

Because the slope of Y¹Y increase in Figure 1; therefore, raising the relative price of schooling vis-a-vis other goods.

Banfield, " The Political Implications."

O'Connell.

Nancy Hoyt St. John, "The Relation of Racial Segregation to the Level of Aspiration and Achievement of Negro Students in a Northern High School," unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University (1962) chapters 1-2.

Martin T. Katzman , "Distribution and Production," chapters 4-5.

State laws aimed at reducing racial imbalance, such as the one in Massachusetts, put the onus on municipalities with large numbers of Negroes-usually big cities. The moral justification of exempting suburbs from responsibility is obscure, and the practical consequences of enforced desegregation may be a rapid exodus of white children from big city public schools, as occurred in Washington, D. C.

John Kenneth Galbraith , The Affluent Society, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958).

Roland McKean , Efficiency in Government Through Systems Analysis, (New York: John Wiley, 1958).