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In a recent article (1970), Robin Barlow compared the Pareto-optimal level of output for a pure public good with the output that would be chosen by majority voting. Applying his model to expenditures on public education, Barlow concluded that actual outlays per pupil were about 26 percent below the Pareto-optimal level (1970, p., 1034). This note questions the procedure by which price and income elasticities were estimated, corrects an error made in computing tax burdens by income class, and formulates the problem in terms of a "pure communal good," which is a more realistic representation of public education expenditures than Samuelson's concept of a "pure public good."