The Politics of Re-Opening Schools: Explaining Public Preferences Reopening Schools and Public Compliance with Reopening Orders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the decision to reopen schools for in-person instruction has become a pressing policy issue. This study examines what overall factors drive public support for schools re-opening in person and whether members of the public are willing to comply with school re-opening decisions based on their own preferences and/or the level of government from which the order comes. Through two rounds of national surveys with an embedded experiment, I find consistent evidence that 1) trust in information from elites - not contact with COVID - best explain preferences for reopening, 2) political ideology and racial and class identification help explain preferences as well, and 3) the President of the United States is best positioned to generate compliance with a school reopening mandate. This study suggests that politics - not public health - drives public support for schools reopening and compliance with government orders to reopen.

The Politics of School Reopening During COVID-19: A Multiple Case Study of Five Urban Districts in the 2020–21 School Year

“…We also observed virtually no role for mayors in Detroit, Denver, and Portland. Although mayors in these cities do not have formal power over schools (as in D.C.), they might have sought to influence reopening by coordinating among community and business interests, as in New Orleans, or by using their bully pulpit to influence public opinion (Collins, 2021a).…”

“…These kinds of relationships and processes might enable more flexible, equitable, and dynamic approaches to decision-making in the face of complexity and uncertainty. Educational leaders also need to recognize and may need to act early in their role as public figures who can potentially influence decision-making (Collins, 2021a).…”

“…Those that do typically find greater shares of Black, Hispanic, and low-income families predict a lower likelihood of reopening (Diemer & Park, 2022;Grossmann et al, 2021;Haderlein et al, 2021b;Harris & Oliver, 2021;Hartney & Finger, 2021;Marianno et al, 2022), though at least one study finds that they are not statistically significant (Houston & Steinberg, 2022). A substantial body of research has also assessed whether and why there are racial and socioeconomic gaps in preferences for and participation in in-person instruction (e.g., Calarco et al, 2021;Camp & Zamarro, 2021;Collins, 2021a;Cotto Jr. & Woulfin, 2021;Darling-Aduana et al, 2022;Grossmann et al, 2021;Haderlein et al, 2021aHaderlein et al, , 2021bHarris & Oliver, 2021;Kogan, 2021;Parolin & Lee, 2021).…”

My School District Isn’t Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation

“…Perhaps unsurprisingly, racial minorities have different perceptions of and views on inequality than do White individuals (Hunt 1996(Hunt , 2007Kane and Kyyro ¨2001). Likewise, views differ by gender (Cotter, Hermsen, and Vanneman 2011;Kane and Kyyro ¨2001), education (Kane and Kyyro 2001;Newman, Johnston, and Lown 2015), political leanings (Collins 2023), social class (Newman et al 2015), and context (Merolla et al 2011;Newman et al 2015). These differences may reflect differences across social groups in experiences of inequality and advantage.…”

Contested Justice: Rethinking Educational Equity Through New York City’s COVID-19 School Reopening Debates

“…COVID-19 positivity rates were a significant predictor of school district decisions to stay remote in Fall 2020 (Harris & Oliver, 2021) and families’ preferences for virtual instruction were most highly associated with school-level infection rates (Darling-Aduana et al, 2022). In national surveys, trust in information from elites was a greater predictor of stance on reopening schools than contact with COVID-19, while political ideology and race and class identification also appeared to predict respondents’ preferences for reopening (Collins, 2021). Analysis of national representative surveys has also found support for increasing teacher salaries to be a predictor of support for in-person instruction (Houston & Steinberg, 2022).…”