Intergenerational conflict and the political economy of school spending

In this paper we use survey data to examine support among voters from different age cohorts for public school spending. The survey asked potential voters in California how they intended to vote on two initiatives, one a statewide initiative that would increase spending on public schools throughout the state and the other a local initiative that would increase spending only in the respondent's local school district. We find that support for school spending generally declines with age, but that older voters are more willing to support local spending on schools than state spending. We examine two explanations for this voting pattern: the capitalization of local spending into housing values and intergenerational altruism. Our results do not strongly favor one explanation over the other, suggesting that both factors probably play important roles in sustaining support among older voters for local school spending. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.