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IV. Limitations A few limitations of this research warrant mentioning. While the school type comparisons we have made in this analysis are statistically valid, we cannot claim to have proven a causal relationship between school funding and school type. A strong correlation can imply causation, but cannot prove it. That said, short of an unlikely experiment where school funding is randomly assigned, we make the case that this research utilizes the best possible approach by accounting for socioeconomic and demographic factors that could also impact school efficiency. A second limitation is that we have not utilized multiple years of data in this study in overtime, longitudinal data. This one year “snapshot” may not capture trends in testing that occur over multiple years. As existing research shows that charter schools are <strong>better</strong> at closing achievement gaps, this suggests our study provides a conservative estimate of the efficiency gains of charter schools. Finally, we could not examine private schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program for this study, a large and important component in the education landscape of Milwaukee. Currently, the limited availability of demographic information regarding choice schools makes this far more difficult than comparisons among MPS public and charter schools. As more data becomes of available in the future, we may replicate this analysis for the choice programs in Wisconsin. Bang for the Buck 15
V. Conclusion The common refrain to increase school funding will no doubt be heard throughout the halls of the capitol during the next legislative session. During such times, it is important for legislators to be careful stewards of the taxpayers’ money and insure that our investment is not wasted. In this report, we have shown that independent charter schools are far more efficient in their expenditures than public schools. Similar levels of increased efficiency are found in non-instrumentality charter schools. This is not a call to convert all public schools to independent charters, but a call for an examination of the comparative inefficiencies of traditional public schools and public charter instrumentality schools. There are a number of policy suggestions that might flow from this report. First, because instrumentality charters are so different from other types of charter schools in terms of efficiency, it might be appropriate to reclassify them as something other than charter schools. Second, given the growing evidence of charter school effectiveness from this study and others, it is important for the state to increase the access of Wisconsin’s children to these schools. This can be accomplished by expanding the number of charter-school authorizers, as well as the purview of existing operators. Finally, the econometric projections in this report suggest that charter schools might be able to further outperform traditional schools if given more equal funding. If tax dollars are allowed to follow students regardless of where they attend school, charter school students may stand to benefit tremendously. Bang for the Buck 16
Page 2 and 3: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background: Not a
Page 4 and 5: 2. The most inefficient schools wit
Page 6 and 7: I. Introduction Although the public
Page 8 and 9: All charter schools in Milwaukee ar
Page 10 and 11: schools. These coefficient estimate
Page 12 and 13: These results are supportive of our
Page 14 and 15: Table 4. Effect of School Type and
Page 18 and 19: Endnotes 1. New legislation has exp
Page 20 and 21: TENOR HS (Indp) 0.287191 IDEAL (Ins
Page 22 and 23: BUSINESS AND ECON ACAD OF MIL. (Non
Page 24 and 25: WHS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 0.167557
Page 26 and 27: VIEAU ELEMENTARY 0.24841 MIL. ACADE
Page 28: METCALF ELEMENTARY 0.192206 TOWSEND

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