Race and Support for State Takeovers of Local School Districts

Abstract

State takeovers of local school districts represent one of the most recent kinds of education reform. Americans favor both local control over education and state takeovers of failing schools. African American leaders tend to oppose takeovers, but survey data suggest that African American citizens support greater state influence over local education. To explain these paradoxes, this study examines conditions under which jurisdictions support state intervention. It concludes that opposition to this reform emanates from jurisdictions where large percentages of African American voters turn out at high rates. The percentage of a jurisdiction’s schools eligible for takeover because of academic deficiencies exerts a statistically insignificant effect on aggregate-level votes for intervention.

Incentivizing improvement or imposition? An examination of the response to gubernatorial school takeover and statewide turnaround districts

“…In the past decades, several major cities and states have employed school takeover, which occurs when the mayor or state strips local education agencies (LEAs) of their power and places struggling schools or districts under the authority of the mayor or state (Wong & Shen, 2003. More recently, the takeover of local district-run schools by a state-run district has become popular ( Burns, 2010;Morel, 2018;Welsh, Williams, Little & Graham, 2017). States such as Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee have taken over persistently lowperforming schools using state-run districts and other states such as North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Nevada are in the process of creating a statewide turnaround district or are in the preparatory stages of state takeover (Morel, 2018;Smith, 2012Smith, , 2013Welsh, 2018;.…”

“…Research on school takeover by a state-run school district is lagging behind the pace at which the policy is being considered or implemented (Burns, 2010;. There is a robust literature on mayoral takeovers (Wong & Shen, 2003, but the recent wave of school takeover-characterized by the prominent role of governors and state-run turnaround districts-has not received much attention (Mason & Reckhow, 2016Welsh, 2018 ;.…”

“…However, this has changed in recent decades as states started dismantling local district administration. In recent times, when takeover occurs, the powers of local elected or appointed school boards are curtailed and sometimes a new state takeover district or superintendent assumes some or all of the powers and duties of the elected or appointed board (Burns, 2010;Welsh 2018). State takeover of schools are normally accompanied by market-based reforms, specifically the chartering of schools that are taken over (Welsh, 2018).…”

“…School takeovers are generally involuntary and historically, takeovers have produced tensions between states, LEAs, and teachers' unions (Garda, 2011;Steiner, 2005). There is a growing backlash to state takeovers for various reasons (Burns, 2010;Garda, 2011;. For instance, opponents of state takeover in post-Katrina New Orleans argued that the state capitalized on a tragic storm to gain control of the schools and suggested that state takeovers were implemented to push the agenda of privatization of schools and to strip local constituents of their power (Garda, 2011).…”

“…For instance, opponents of state takeover in post-Katrina New Orleans argued that the state capitalized on a tragic storm to gain control of the schools and suggested that state takeovers were implemented to push the agenda of privatization of schools and to strip local constituents of their power (Garda, 2011). Some scholars argue that school takeover is a disempowerment strategy aimed at Black communities in the guise of a school improvement strategy (Morel, 2018), whereas others posit that this policy lever weakens democratic control of public schools, especially for the lowest performing schools (Burns, 2010).…”