QUALITY COMPETITION AND PUBLIC-SCHOOLS - FURTHER EVIDENCE

This paper contributes to the literature on competition in public schools. Borland and Howsen (1992) showed that the ''market structure'' of public schools affected academic performance. In this note, we consider the possibility that the performance of neighboring school districts could influence performance. Student academic performance was modeled as a function of control variables and competition from neighboring school districts. Academic performance of subject school districts was shown to be positively associated with the performance of neighboring districts but the effect was small. The findings confirm the Borland and Howsen implication that additional efforts to strengthen interjurisdictional competition may be useful.