Effects of Needs-Based School Funding

This project investigates how school funding structures and teachers’ working conditions influence teacher turnover and student achievement, with particular emphasis on needs-based resource allocation. By combining register data on all Swedish teachers with original data on municipal needs-based school funding, we analyze how working conditions relate to sickness absence, staff turnover, and the recruitment of qualified teachers.

In a second stage, we examine the effects of needs-based school funding on students’ educational trajectories and learning outcomes. Using quasi-experimental methods, we assess whether resources directed toward disadvantaged schools improve educational attainment among underprivileged students, as well as whether there are spillover effects on schools serving more advantaged groups.

The purpose of the project is to deepen our understanding of how economic resources and working conditions jointly shape the school system’s equity mandate, and to contribute to the policy debate on how social and economic disparities can be reduced.

Funders: KEFU, the Swedish Research Council (VR), and FORTE.