Which School Districts Qualified for Federal School Facility Funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009? Evidence from Ohio

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) allocated $11 billion per year for 2009 and 2010 for qualified school construction bonds (QSCBs) for America's schools. From a historical perspective, this program is a broad transformation of the federal role in school facility funding. This study examined factors associated with federal allocations to school districts in Ohio, asking the following questions: What demographic and finance characteristics of Ohio school districts are associated with an increased likelihood of qualifying for a QSCB? Did school districts with greater need qualify? We found that Ohio districts that had previously deferred participation in the state's capital funding program (typically unable to raise the local share) were strongly associated with an increased likelihood of QSCB qualification (p <.001), thus providing an opportunity for these districts to overcome local voter reticence of additional taxes and address school construction and renovation needs with the availability of lower-interest-rate borrowing over a shorter period of time. Higher poverty rates were associated with an increased likelihood of receiving QSCB awards, but marginally so (p <.10). Our findings suggest that QSCB qualification may have helped to address the equity concerns raised in the prior literature.