Thompson-Ferguson, Owen2009-05-082009-05-082009-05-08Thompson-Ferguson, Owen. The Estimated Impact of Privatizing Student Transportation On Costs for Minnesota School Districts. April 29 2009. May 8 2009. Hubert H Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.https://hdl.handle.net/11299/49898professional paper in fulfillment of the Masters of Public Policy degreeStudent transportation makes up a substantial portion of a typical school district’s operating budget, and sub-contracting bus service to private firms has been advanced by some as a way to reduce transportation costs and allow school districts to focus on their core missions. Previous studies that analyzed a single school-year of data have found conflicting and inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of privatization on transportation costs. This paper seeks to improve on previous studies by estimating a cost equation using data spanning six school-years. The primary result is that privatization actually acts to increase transportation costs by a substantial amount. Estimates using the data in a pooled cross section form predicted that going from fully outsourced to fully in house reduced costs by approximately 15.8 percent, while the analogous estimate using a first differenced equation was a savings of 20.7 percent.en-UScostsstudent transportationThesis or Dissertation