Characterizing the effects of military base closures on the American education system

Abstract

The effect of military base closures on the pupil-teacher ratios of neighboring elementary schools has not been addressed by past research. Based on NCES and other publicly available data ranging from 1986 to 2012, military base closures (since 1988) have not had a substantial impact on pupil-teacher ratios nor the two populations that make up this measure: the number of students and full-time equivalent teachers. The estimation models included variations in demographics and locales as well as time trends and unknown fixed effects specific to each school and year contained in the dataset. The analysis modeled the base closure process in three separate ways to encompass potential differences in the length and magnitude of such processes. While many of the regressions returned statistically significant coefficient estimates, there was no economic significance to any of the findings.