Politics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education’s Response to COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine how local governments respond to a public health crisis amid high levels of partisan polarization. As an arena that has historically been relatively insulated from national partisan cleavages, public schools provide a useful window into understanding the growing nationalization of local politics. Leveraging the fact that all school districts had to adopt a reopening plan in fall 2020, we assess the factors that influenced school district reopening decisions. We find that mass partisanship and vested interests best explain the degree to which schools reopened. Republican (Democratic) districts were far more (less) likely to reopen in person, while districts with stronger unions relied more on remote learning. Notably, we find little connection between reopening decisions and indicators measuring the severity of the virus. Finally, public schools were sensitive to the threat of student exit. Districts located in counties with more Catholic schools were somewhat more likely to reopen in person. We assess the implications of these findings for U.S. education policy and the study of local government more generally.

All States Close but Red Districts Reopen: The Politics of In-Person Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Later in the summer, he threatened to cut off funds for school districts or states that did not reopen schools for in-person instruction (Baker et al, 2020). Initial research suggests that schools in majority Democratic areas were considerably more likely to choose all-remote learning in the fall of 2020 (Hartney & Finger, 2021;Valant, 2020).…”

“…Research also suggests that teachers' unions and collective bargaining played a role in these decisions: districts with collective bargaining were significantly more likely to remain in remote learning (Hartney & Finger, 2021). Teachers' unions are especially prominent and influential in local education politics (Moe, 2011), and union leaders voiced concerns about the risks of school reopening for the health and safety of teachers (Wanneh, 2020).…”

Are School Reopening Decisions Related to Union Influence?

“…To our knowledge, only Hartney and Finger (2020) provide a comparable and complementary national analysis that focuses on the relationship between school size and reopening decisions. In particular, their emphasis is on the role of partisanship and reopening decisions, whereas ours is on unions.…”

“…In particular, their emphasis is on the role of partisanship and reopening decisions, whereas ours is on unions. Hartney and Finger (2020) found that public school districts in the United States were more likely to reopen in person in areas with higher proportions of Trump voters in the 2016 presidential election, more competition from Catholic schools, and larger student enrollments. One state‐based analysis found that Wisconsin public school districts with teachers’ unions were more likely to open with fully remote instruction than districts without teachers’ unions after controlling for COVID‐19 cases and demographic characteristics (Flanders, 2020).…”

Taking Back Teaching: The Professionalization Work of Teacher Activist Organizations

“…When students there returned to in-person learning following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shutdowns, police officers had been replaced with “public safety support specialists” (Crann, 2021). Yet there are ongoing challenges; the empathy and appreciation for teachers by the public early in the COVID-19 pandemic gave way to contentious debates about the safety of reopening school buildings (Hartney & Finger, 2020). As we write, lawmakers in a number of states have set their sights on critical race theory, introducing measures to regulate and censor teaching about racism in the classroom (Kearse, 2021).…”