Passing school building tax levies may increase teacher salary

Abstract

We examine 4000 votes on school district tax levies for capital expenditures in Ohio over 24 years. We find that passing school building tax levies increases average teacher salaries by 1%. The effects are generally present one through three years after levy passage. Quantile regression shows that teachers already in the highest-paid districts receive even larger salary increases than teachers in lower-paid districts. This may be the first regression discontinuity capital expenditures study to look specifically at teacher salary or use quantile regression.