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[https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nDoes School Funding Matter in a Pandemic? COVID-19 Instructional  \nModels and School Funding Adequacy  \nMark Weber  \nRutgers University  \nBruce D. Baker  \nUniversity of Miami  \nThe factors that influenced school districts’decisions to offer virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction during the 2020–2021 school year—the first full school year after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic—have been the focus of a large body of research in recent years. Some of this research examines the influence of school spending, among other factors; however, these studies do not consider spending in relation to cost, “cost” being the amount needed for a school district to achieve a given outcome. This paper uses a measure of adequacy, which is the amount of spending under or over estimated cost, to determine whether spending correlates with the amount of time a school district offered virtual instruction. We find that spending adequacy significantly and substantially predicts time spent in virtual instruction: for every $1,000 positive change in adequacy (closing a gap and/or adding to a surplus), the time spent in virtual schooling decreases 0.9 percentage points.  \nA one standard deviation positive change in adequacy, therefore, results in 12.8 fewer days of virtual instruction. While our findings are descriptive, they do require future researchers to consider school spending adequacy, as much as any other factor, as a predictor of pandemic instructional models.  \nKeywords: finance, educational policy, economics of education, econometric analysis, regression analyses, COVID-19, school spending, school funding adequacy, pandemic learning models, virtual, hybrid, in-person  \nThe closing of schools at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 is arguably one of the most consequential events in the history of American education. A research consensus is emerging that finds that remote schooling during the 2020–2021 school year had a pronounced effect on the academic progress and mental health of students. School districts, however, varied widely in how they delivered instruction: some districts offered fully remote/ virtual schooling, some were fully in-person, and some were a hybrid of the two. In addition, in response to changes in the local COVID-19 case rate or other factors, districts changed their instructional models as the year progressed. Given the consequences of these choices, understanding why school districts offered the instruction that they did is an important policy question.  \nOver the past several years, researchers have explored the correlation between pandemic instruction and variables that might explain school districts’ choices: political affiliation, teachers union strength, local COVID-19 prevalence, and student demographics have all been assessed as potential predictors of instructional delivery models. A small number of studies have also included spending per pupil in their models; most have found no correlation between spending  \nand the types of instruction offered. What these studies fail to include, however, is a measure of school spending adequacy. Research has established that school districts with different student populations and different economic contexts require different amounts of funding to provide equal educational opportunity. Two school districts spending the same amount per pupil may have very different costs,“cost”being the amount necessary for a district to achieve some common educational goal. A simple measure of spending per pupil will, therefore, be an insufficient measure of a district’s ability to provide an adequate education—and, potentially, its ability to ","cbCaiocAt9QuNynO","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiocAt9QuNynO","pdf",506102,16,"English","# Does School Funding Matter in a Pandemic?\n## Instructional models and funding adequacy\n## Adequacy measurement approach\n## Empirical findings and implications","[{\"question\":\"What instructional model choices does the paper analyze for 2020–2021?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how districts decided among virtual, hybrid, or in-person instruction during the 2020–2021 school year and how those choices evolved as conditions changed.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper define “spending adequacy”?\",\"answer\":\"Spending adequacy is defined as the amount of spending above or below an estimated cost needed to achieve a specific educational outcome.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the relationship between spending adequacy and virtual instruction time?\",\"answer\":\"Spending adequacy significantly predicts time spent in virtual instruction, with every $1,000 positive change in adequacy associated with a decrease in virtual schooling time.\"}]","Does School Funding Matter in a Pandemic? - COVID-19 Instructional Models and School Funding Adequacy | PDF",1792069357]