School Finance Reforms, Teachers’ Unions, and the Allocation of School ResourcesEric BrunnerauthorJoshua HymanauthorAndrew JuauthorK-12 EducationFinanceInequalityPolitics, governance, philanthropy, and organizations2018Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown UniversitySchool finance reforms caused some of the most dramatic increases in intergovernmental aid from states to local governments in U.S. history. We examine whether teachers’ unions affected the fraction of reform-induced state aid that passed through to local spending and the allocation of these funds. Districts with strong teachers’ unions increased spending nearly dollar-for-dollar with state aid, and spent the funds primarily on teacher compensation. Districts with weak unions used aid primarily for property tax relief, and spent remaining funds on hiring new teachers. The greater expenditure increases in strong union districts led to larger increases in student achievement.engtextgrey literatureedworkingpapers.com10.26300/g6bq-1a29In Copyright