Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

The exploration of economic aspects of education can trace its roots back to Adam Smith and the earliest days of the formal study of economics. The early focus was on connections between education and economic phenomena like earnings and economic growth. Concepts like “human capital” have been developed and refined and are now routinely found in policy debates about education. In more recent years, interest has grown in studying the efficiency or productivity of educational organizations like schools and school districts.

In contrast, the field of educational administration is less of a discipline within the social sciences than an area of application that increasingly draws upon various social science disciplines. The field of educational administration includes a subfield or area of specialization that focuses on resource allocation and finance. Historically, this subfield has concerned itself with the use of taxes by various levels of government to raise public revenues for schools and the subsequent distribution of these revenues across states and school districts within states. The focus of much of this work within the field of educational finance has been on the equity or fairness with which resources for education are raised and distributed.