Professor to Open Session on Public School Finance

Robert Costrell, who holds the Twenty-First Century Chair in Education Accountability in the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas, will give the opening address at the second annual convening of the Land Policy Conference on June 3-5 in Cambridge, Mass.

Costrell, who was chief economist and education adviser to former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, will talk about equity and efficiency issues in state versus local public school finance and the current state of school finance litigation. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is sponsoring the conference to address the transfer of fiscal responsibilities from national and state governments to local governments.

The conference will cover the effects of decentralization on government responsiveness to local demand for public goods, local service financing, income distribution, local governance structures, inter-jurisdictional competition and environmental protection.

The Lincoln Institute, founded in 1974, conducts research and convenes scholars and practitioners on land planning and development issues both in the United States and abroad.

From 1999 to 2006, Costrell served in major policy roles for three governors of Massachusetts, and he was a member of the economics department of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1978 to 2006.