THE COMPARATIVE COST OF PRIVATIZED PUBLIC SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION IN TENNESSEE

This paper provides evidence from an empirical test of service contracting versus bureaucratic production of school bus transportation. Actual contracted cost of school bus service is compared to the estimate of in-house cost for providing the same service in 19 Tennessee public school systems. In-house cost is estimated from a two-output, two-input translog cost function regressed on 91 school systems. Contracted cost is found to be lower that in-house in 15 or the 91 contract systems. The potential savings equals 27% of average contract cost for these 15 systems. In the other 4 contract systems, actual cost exceeds the estimated in-house cost by 21% of their average contract cost.

  • Availability:
  • Corporate Authors:

    Policy Studies Organization

    University of Illinois, 361 Lincoln Hall
    Urbana, IL  United States  61801
  • Authors:
    • Hutchinson, E B
    • Pratt, L J
  • Publication Date: 1999

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00779574
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Dec 13 1999 12:00AM