The road to school: distances between home and school in different social strata.

Analysis with spatial microdata from Bahia Blanca

Abstract

We analyze effective access to compulsory education (initial, primary, and secondary levels) and test the hypothesis that households located in vulnerable neighborhoods have less accessibility to the educational system than those with higher incomes or located in central areas. The study was motivated by the persistent claim of families living in vulnerable settings facing the difficulties to enroll in closer schools. The data source used corresponds to a survey applied to a random sample of 620 households with 897 children and adolescents in the towns of Bahía Blanca, Ingeniero White and Daniel Cerri. We compute the distance that students travel to go to school through the georeferencing of household addresses and of the educational units they attend. We compare this distance between vulnerable peripheral neighborhoods and the rest andWe conduct bivariate and multivariate tests, after controlling for other determinants of the distance to the school. The results express public and private underinvestment in school infrastructure in vulnerable neighborhoods, which forces households to travel longer distances to attend school. This deficit translates into higher repetition rates at the secondary level and increased absenteeism at the initial level, affecting the effective fulfillment of the right to education.