The Impact of Teacher Unions on School District Finance and Student Achievement: Evidence From the Great Recession

Abstract

I examine whether the impact of the Great Recession on school district spending, the allocation of resources, and student achievement varied depending on the strength of state’s teachers’ unions. Employing a diff-in-diff-in-diff identification strategy, I find that school districts in states with strong teachers’ unions experienced significantly larger declines in per-pupil expenditures during the economic downtown compared with otherwise similar districts in states with weak teachers’ unions. The larger decline in expenditures in strong union states, however, did not lead to a differential decline in student achievement relative to weak union states.