Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Politics of Education Policy

(The Impacts of Politics on the Policy Process)

This panel will explore how political institutions and citizen attitudes and behavior influence public service outcomes in the context of the US public school system. Joshua Bleiberg and Erica Harbatkin model the diffusion of teacher evaluation policies at the state level, identifying the key role paid played by federal and competitive pressures. Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane Lavertu, and Zachary Peskowitz use micro-targeting data from a national voter file to examine how the timing of school bond and tax referenda affects the composition of the electorate, and, in turn, the prospects for passage. Randall ReBack, employs a new instrumental variables strategy to examine how school districts respond to expenditures in neighboring districts. A final paper, by Paul Peterson and Sam Barrows, draws on original survey data to consider how parent’s perceptions of and attitudes toward schools varies across charter, public, and private schools, and employs a survey experiment to examine whether appeals for accuracy can increase the accuracy of parents’ responses to factual questions about the US school system. The US school system has in recent years proved an increasingly fruitful domain in which to explore how public services shape citizens’ perceptions and political behavior, and how political institutions, in turn, influence that behavior and, ultimately, policy. This panel will provide an opportunity to consider the progress that has been made and how best to move this research agenda forward.