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Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work on efficiency, resource usage, and economic outcomes of schools has frequently entered into the design of both national and international educational policy. His research spans such diverse areas as the impacts of teacher quality, high stakes accountability, and class size reduction on achievement and the role of cognitive skills in international growth and development. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the basis for current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

He is chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He currently serves as chair of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences.

His newest book, Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools, describes how improved school finance policies can be used to meet our achievement goals. Prior books include Courting Failure, the Handbook on the Economics of Education, The Economics of Schooling and School Quality, Improving America’s Schools, Making Schools Work, Educational Performance of the Poor, Education and Race, Modern Political Economy, Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions, and Statistical Methods for Social Scientists, along with numerous widely-cited articles in professional journals.

He previously held academic appointments at the University of Rochester, Yale University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Government service includes being Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, and Senior Economist at the Cost of Living Council.  He has been appointed to a variety of policy commissions including the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence in California and the Governor’s Commission for a College Ready Texas. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education along with being a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and the American Education Research Association. He was awarded the Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 2004.    
He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965-1974.


Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses:
Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools
(Princeton University Press, 2009)

Eric A. Hanushek & Alfred A. Lindseth

School funding has quadrupled over the past few decades spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public school funding and by separate legislative initiatives. And yet, American students rank below average when compared to other developed countries that are  significantly outspent by the United States. At the same time, unacceptably large achievement gaps also persist.  Clearly something needs to be done to improve the quality of education, but what?  Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America’s Public Schools traces the history of reform efforts and concludes that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures concerning funding issues has done little to improve student achievement.  The simplest and most persuasive explanation of the lack of significant improvements in student achievement is that the incentives today do not focus on improved student outcomes.  Added funding for schools is not related to performance.  Indeed it is often perverse—rewarding poor performance and punishing good performance.  This book provides an alternate path to improved achievement and better functioning schools.  The authors propose adopting a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement.

Endorsements: William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Roy Romer, Kati Haycock, Frederick Hess, Michael Podgursky

Table of Contents

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