Bifulco Named Co-Editor of Top Policy Journal

Robert Bifulco

Robert Bifulco has been named co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management .  JPAM is the leading journal in the field of public policy and public management.

Robert Bifulco is an Associate Professor with the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs, and Senior Research Associate within the Center for Policy Research. His specialties are Education finance and policy, program evaluation and school segregation. Professor Bifulco teaches Education Policy, Public Budgeting, and Economics for Public Decisions.  He earned his MPA (1994) and PhD (2001) from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.  His most recent article “The Fiscal Impacts of Charter Schools: Lessons from New York” (with R. Reback), can be found in Education Finance and Policy, (Winter 2014, Vol. 9, No. 1, pgs 86-107). 

Abstract

This brief argues that charter school programs can have direct fiscal impacts on school districts for two reasons. First, operating two systems of public schools under separate governance arrangements can create excess costs. Second, charter school financing policies can distribute resources to or away from districts. Using the city school districts of Albany and Buffalo in New York, we demonstrate how fiscal impacts on local school districts can be estimated. We find that charter schools have had fiscal impacts on these two school districts. Finally, we argue that charter schools policies should seek to minimize any avoidable excess costs created by charter schools and ensure that the burden of any unavoidable excess costs is equitably distributed across traditional public schools, charter schools, and the state. We offer concrete policy recommendations that may help to achieve these objectives.

Bob joins fellow Maxwell PAIA faculty, Len Lopoo, on the co-editorial board of JPAM.  Professor Lopoo is currently the social policy co-editor of JPAM, a post he has held since 2008.