@EdWorkingPaper{ai20-196,
title = "The Democratic Deficit in U.S. Education Governance",
author = "Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane Lavertu, Zachary Peskowitz",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "196",
year = "2020,
month = "January",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-196",
abstract = {America's decentralized system of public school governance is premised on the assumption that the interests of voters who elect school boards will be aligned with the educational needs of students. We explore the plausibility of this assumption by comparing the demographic characteristics of voters and students across four states. Using official voter turnout records and rich microtargeting data, we document considerable demographic differences between voters who participate in school board elections and the students attending the schools that boards oversee, suggesting that the assumption is unlikely to describe reality in many settings. For example, we show that most majority-nonwhite districts in our sample have a majority-white electorate and that these electoral disparities are associated with racial achievement gaps. Our novel analysis provides important political context for considering the electoral incentives facing school boards and how these incentives shape the quality of public education.},
}