Question

My children went to a magnet elementary school with 300 enrolled students. Another nearby elementary magnet had 800 elementary-age children. My wife and I wondered, “How big should an elementary school be?” What economic forces suggest bigger schools are cheaper at providing education, and what forces suggest smaller schools are cheaper, holding constant the quality of education? Note: I am only asking about the cost of education, and I am assuming—and want you to assume--that the quality of education is unaffected by size. Note also that I have focused the question on just elementary schools, not high schools (so no football stadiums, etc), and on schools, not classes (so assume the individual classrooms are all the same size of 20 students).

Answer 1

The size of an elementary school depends on the locality and the capacity of the school. However some forces suggest that bigger schools are beneficial while some suggest that smaller ones are beneficial . Bigger schools help in maintaing the facilities with more number of children and hence the expenditure can be shared between more number amount . This helps in making the fess low as more number of students are available to share the same expenditure. This makes bigger schools beneficial. Small schools will have fewer students and hence the expenditure will also be less which makes them beneficial . However elementary school will have same requirements such as play areas with toys etc., which costs the same even there more or less pupils. Hence bigger schools will find it more beneficial as they can accomodate more students.