Who Should Control Education Now? Revisiting Preferences for Local Control in Educational Decision Making

ABSTRACTDespite a long history of local control of schools, educational issues have become increasingly contested at higher levels of government as battles are fought in state and federal venues and along partisan lines. In light of this change as well as recent battles over school responses to COVID-19 and schools’ roles in combating systemic racism, we explore how the shifting politics of education have affected public attitudes toward localism in education. We demonstrate that the public’s preference for local control is not as deeply held as conventional wisdom suggests. Local government is never the public’s most preferred option when asked about the optimal distribution of education funding or decision-making authority across all three levels of government. Our results also show that preferences for local control have remained relatively stable and exhibit only narrowly increasing partisan differences; however, the increase in the partisan divide is larger among parents. We note that Democrats have adjusted their preferences over the last few years, shifting modestly in favor of local decision-making when Republicans control the Presidency and Congress. Finally, we observe some evidence that prompting individuals to consider schools’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic causes them to gravitate toward local control of education. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 “Parents” naturally includes non-parental caregivers as well as adults who assume few childcare responsibilities for the minors in their household, while “non-parents” include individuals who play a large role in the upbringing of children outside their home.2 Note that there is limited variation with respect to partisan control during this era, restricting our examination to a subset of possible configurations.Additional informationNotes on contributorsCameron J. ArnzenCameron J. Arnzen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Politics & Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He studies the relationship between schools and democracy, concentrating both on how education shapes political participation as well as how political participation subsequently shapes schools.David M. HoustonDavid M. Houston is an Assistant Professor of Education at George Mason University. He studies education politics, governance, and public opinion.