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68 The Benefits to Taxpayers from Increases in Students’ Educational Attainment Summary Increases in education would reduce the costs of the criminal justice system and ease the demand for increased capacity in state prisons and county and municipal jails. Table 5.3 shows the total effects of increased education on savings on incarceration spending. It lists the savings that would accrue to the public budget in the extreme case—raising an individual’s education from dropping out of high school to college graduate—in each of our population groups. For example, a white U.S.-born man who completes college rather than dropping out of high school would cost taxpayers about $24,000 less (2002 value) in spending on incarceration, on average. The reductions in incarceration spending from increased education are generally larger for black men and women than for their counterparts. Because women are infrequently incarcerated, the reductions in spending resulting from increases in their education levels are smaller than the savings for men. Table 5.3 Present Value of Reduced Spending on Incarceration Associated with Increasing Educational Attainment from High School Dropout to College Graduate for U.S.-Born Individuals (2002 $, thousands) Race/ethnicity Men Women White 23 3 Asian 17 1 Black 137 14 Hispanic 58 6 SOURCE: Appendix D.
Chapter Six The Costs of Providing Additional Education In previous chapters, we have described some of the financial benefits that taxpayers will realize if students attain higher levels of education. Presumably, however, those additional years of schooling will also cost money. In this chapter, we identify what the costs of providing additional schooling would be. As noted in Chapter One, we do not address the question of what could be done to induce students to continue their education to a higher level or what such efforts would cost. Rather, we focus on the benefits taxpayers would realize if students increased their education net of the costs of providing the increases in education. The relevant cost concept is that of “marginal” cost: the cost of providing education to one additional student. Marginal cost will typically be lower than average cost because several expense items (such as a principal’s salary) are fixed regardless of the number of students enrolled. However, data on the marginal costs of education are generally not available. Accordingly, we estimated the costs of raising a person’s education level based on what the average costs are per student at each level of education. Because average costs are typically larger than are marginal costs, our estimates overestimate the costs of providing education to an additional student and, consequently, underestimate the net benefits to taxpayers of increased education. The costs of education vary from state to state and within states, by type of institution, and by level of education. We used national average operating cost estimates for U.S. public high schools and colleges to estimate the costs of providing increased education and, consequently, taxpayers’ net benefits from increased educational attainment. For the public secondary education system, per-pupil spending figures are based on average daily attendance (ADA), the average number of students who attended school on each day of the school year. At the postsecondary level, because college students can enroll for a full course load or for individual classes, per-pupil spending figures are based on full-time equivalent (FTE) students: the total number of enrollments in all courses divided by the number of courses taken by a full-time student. We used SIPP data collected in 2002 to estimate the benefits that taxpayers would realize from increases in education. The closest corresponding school year is the 2001–2002 school year. In that school year, the national average expenditure per ADA in public K–12 education was $7,727 (U.S. Department of Education, National 69
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THE ARTS CHILD POLICY CIVIL JUSTICE
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The Benefits to Taxpayers from Incr
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Preface Meeting the educational dem
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Figures 3.1. Present Value of Lifet
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Abbreviations ADA CPS EITC FTE GED
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Chapter Two Analytic Approach There
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Analytic Approach 15 effects of edu
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Page 57 and 58: Payments for Taxes and Social Progr
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Page 69 and 70: Spending on Social Support Programs
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Page 101 and 102: Educational Attainment and Public R
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Page 115 and 116: Data and Sources 89 Program Benefit
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Page 119 and 120: Estimating Tax Payments 93 Federal
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Page 139 and 140: References Aos, Steve, Roxanne Lieb
Page 141 and 142: References 115 Krop, Richard, Steph
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