Author(s)
Austan Goolsbee and Jonathan Guryan
Source
The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 88, No. 2, pp. 336-347, 2006
Summary
This paper examines the effects of a federal program aiming to increase public school Internet access.
Policy Relevance
The E-Rate program is effective in increasing Internet access in public schools, but has not affected test scores.
Main Points
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Some policymakers are concerned about unequal levels of Internet access and technological aptitude across public school students.
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The E-Rate program aims to support Internet access in poorer schools by subsidizing their purchases of computers and related equipment. There are some questions as to its effectiveness:
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Does the E-Rate program increase Internet access, or just subsidize purchases that would have happened anyway?
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Do these purchases have any effect on students’ academics?
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The authors studied California public schools between 1996 and 2000.
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Subsidies were effective at increasing purchases of computer equipment. A 1% subsidy increased spending by 0.4-1.1%.
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The effectiveness of the subsidy was larger in urban schools, and schools with a larger minority population.
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Test scores, a measure of academic performance, were not affected by the subsidies.
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68% more classrooms had Internet access in 2000 than would have absent the subsidy.