Are Schools as Community Hubs Worth It?

Abstract

Understanding return on investment is a common priority for evaluating schools that operate as hubs for their community. Seeking answers to questions like, ‘are we getting adequate returns on our investment?’ and ‘when and where do we need to invest resources to maximise returns?’ is paramount to ensuring the sustainability of school as community hubs (SaCH) because they require ongoing funding to achieve their purported benefits for students, families and residents in local school communities. Economic evaluation designs that enable investment in SaCH to be compared with tangible benefits as well as future cumulative benefits will be explained and compared in this chapter. The discussion wi..