SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS DECEMBER, 1976 ESTIMATING EDUCATION PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS*

Public elementary and secondary education of school plants and reorganization of administrative represent the largest single expenditure by units of units. A comprehensive program of administrative state and local governments. Nearly 30 percent of all reorganization and consolidation of school plants was tax dollars raised at the state and local level is spent virtually complete at the time the Indiana study was for funding public elementary and secondary schools undertaken. The key public concern in North Dakota [10]. The magnitude of expenditures for public was whether or not consolidation and reorganization education relative to other public goods makes would lead to a "better " education for students. questions concerning resource allocation for this Indiana residents were more concerned with the service extremely important. It is not surprising that a impacts of additional spending within the existing great deal of attention has been directed toward institutional structure. The analysis herein examines determining if the educational process can be made interrelationships between educational inputs (alter-more efficient. native uses for tax dollars within a school) and Politicians, school administrators and other educational outputs (standardized test scores ' and decision-makers who deal with school finance prob- other measures). Policy recommendations stemming lems in rural and urban areas face a key policy from results of studies conducted in both states ar