School districts have more influence on home buyers’ choices than any other local-government unit, yet hardly anyone knows why they exist. “Making the Grade” explains the development of American school districts and advances an economic argument for their continued existence. In the...

This article offers an explanation for the failure of statewide voucher plans, which would entitle students to use public money to attend private schools, to be generally accepted by the public. I submit that public schools are in fact a local public good. The reason economists have failed to...