RACE, EQUITY, AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 21


white areas. Third, parents can send their children to live with distant family members or foster in other children, or children can go to private schools that formerly belonged to different population groups, even though these schools are not located in their residential areas.5


In response to cross-sectional differences as well as changes in the num- ber of learners in public schools, it is desirable to adjust the number of edu- cators optimally to maintain efficiency in learning and equity among children. There are several scenarios. Consider a stationary environment in which the total number of learners does not change. If the provincial government coordinates the employment of teachers and allocates them among schools with no transaction costs, the optimal ratio of learners to educators can be smoothly maintained. The ratios will be equalized across schools. If schools have discretion over the employment of educators indepen- dently of the local government (for example, principals decide to employ teachers with the approval of school governing bodies consisting of commu- nity leaders, parents, and educators), the adjustment of educators depends on decisionmaking in each school and mostly on its financial condition. Currently in South Africa, many public schools receive insufficient financial support from the government. In this case, equalization of the ratios is not guaranteed. In other words, the equalization of LERs is a necessary condition for, among other things, unitary decisionmaking (or interventions) by the government. Even if the local government suffers budget constraints, unitary decisionmaking will lead to the equalization of LERs.


In response to changes in the number of learners, budget constraints may matter at the school and government levels. Without population growth, under unitary decisionmaking by the government it is easy to transfer edu- cators from one school to another to equalize ratios across schools. This is especially important under the post-apartheid regime, in which people are essentially free to migrate. With population growth, however, to maintain the current LER, the adjustment of educators (like the adjustment of capital stock) depends on the government’s budget (liquidity) constraint, since the government needs new educators.


When public schools receive little or no government subsidy, the situation is more serious. Schools with binding budget constraints that cannot collect enough school fees from learner households are likely to have great difficulty in hiring more educators. Unlike with unitary decisionmaking, there will be more variations in LER across schools in this case, since financial conditions


5 Zimmerman (2003) shows that fostering raises school enrollment in South Africa. The geo- graphic movement of children is partly motivated by the attempt to provide them with better educational opportunities.


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