School Quality and Massachusetts Enrollment Shifts in the Context of Tax Limitations

摘要: Like most states, Massachusetts underwent a large shift in public school enrollment between the 1980s and 1990s, requiring number of sizable fiscal educational adjustments by individual districts. Between 1980 1989, students kindergarten through grade 12 fell 21 percent, from 1.04 million to 825,000. As children baby boomers reached age, picture changed enrollments grew more than 90,000 over next seven years. These aggregate trends gloss even marked shifts at local level. This article investigates degree which constraints proposition 2 1/2, other factors such as demographic economic differences quality, affected that both governments households made demographically driven turnaround growth. The authors report three major findings: (1) Net changes are positively related across communities quality. (2) Shifts were much pronounced when rising economy was improving. (3) Proposition 1/2 appears have significantly altered pattern changes, with families moving districts less constrained this property tax limit.