Policy Research

Returns to Education: Exploring the Link between Legislators Public School Degrees and State Spending on Higher Education

Megan Thiel, Kristen Shorette, Catherine Bolzendahl

Summary

The article examines the effects that individual backgrounds of state legislators have on policy outcomes; specifically the article examines the effects of a legislator’s educational history and its effect on higher education spending. The article finds that, after controlling for factors such as state budget, previous year spending, and proportion of educated population, that state legislators whom have attended public colleges have a significantly higher chance of increasing funding for higher education than those that attended private colleges or no college. The study also found that gender has no relationship with amount of spending on education.

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Policy Implications

This article can be useful in helping to understand the effect that individual backgrounds of legislators have on policy. The findings suggest that an analysis of a legislator’s background may help to predict what policy they may be supportive of, and that a legislators preferences are not entirely derived from their constituency. Additionally, it helps to provide some explanation for the high degree of variance in spending among states on higher education.