Investing in Schools: Capital Spending, Facility Conditions, and Student Achievement

This study investigates investment in school facilities and its causal impacts on student achievement. Public investments in repairs, modernization, and construction cost billions. However, little is known about the nature of school facility investments, whether they actually change the physical condition of public schools, and the subsequent causal impacts on student achievement. It examines the achievement effects of nearly 1,400 capital campaigns initiated and financed by local school districts, comparing districts where school capital bonds were either narrowly approved or defeated by district voters. Results find little evidence that school capital campaigns improve student achievement. The event-study analyses focusing on students who attend targeted schools and are therefore exposed to major campus renovations also generate very precise zero estimates of achievement effects. Thus, locally financed school capital campaigns – the predominant method through which facility investments are made- may represent a limited tool for realizing substantial gains in student achievement or closing achievement gaps.