This quantitative ex post facto study is a modified replication of research conducted in 1991 by Dr. Michael Ough designed to understand the relationship between selected variables and the outcome of school bond elections held in Nebraska between September 1, 2011, and August 31, 2021. The dependent variable for the study was if a Nebraska public…

Indian Hills Community College had the numbers behind them upon passing a bond measure in November 2021. More than 12,000 voters in 17 Iowa counties gave their approval for a $28 million referendum designated to fund a brand new campus and additional major improvements. The bond, which needed 60% support to pass, cleared that hurdle with more than…

The purpose of this research was to determine what a school district in Texas does to have consistent bond approval passages. The qualitative research consisted of three interviews that included six questions to district senior staff participants who closely work on school bonds. Research showed that the district relies on guided and established…

In this paper, the authors study a proposition in California that weakened the constraints on some local governments by lowering the vote share required to approve capital funding for schools and community colleges. The study uses a difference-in-differences design around this policy change and data for over 4,000 local elections across the state…

One of the primary functions of local school districts is to provide a sound educational environment to students. To achieve this goal, school districts continue to maintain and improve existing facilities and construct new buildings. School districts must go through bond elections to receive voter approval before issuing bonds to support the…

A primary rationale for public provision of K-12 education and state financing of school spending is that education fosters civic engagement and the development of social capital. However, limited evidence exists on whether and how school spending affects civic engagement. Virtually all studies focus on the impact of educational attainment (as…

We study the effects of giving poor females the right to vote in local elections on education spending and teacher-student ratios. To estimate causal effects, we exploit a national voting reform in Norwegian local elections that removed socioeconomic restrictions on female voting rights. The identification strategy exploits heterogeneous changes…

This study is intended to provide guidance to public school districts by identifying research based campaign strategies that have been proven to help with the successful passage of bond initiatives. In the United States, half of all public schools need at least one major facility repair and in Ohio, because tax initiatives in support of school…

The purpose of this study is to examine factors that influence stakeholder support of bond elections targeted for capital improvements in a rural school district in Kansas. The study uses existing research to identify factors that influence school bond referendum success. To better understand the factors identified in the research literature that…

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, education policy debates have thrust a heightened focus on the provision of adequate school resources and on educator well-being and turnover, concerns particularly critical for school districts that serve large shares of economically disadvantaged students. In this article, we investigate voter and parent…

The U.S. Constitution is the most well-known governing document in the country--studied by students, endlessly interpreted and reinterpreted by judges and political pundits, and placed in the category of near-religious reverence by many Americans. In the last 50 years it has been amended exactly once, in a ratification process that took over 200…

We examine whether policies that enable families to opt out of locally provided public services are associated with reduced political participation. Our study is focused on two types of school choice policy in Michigan: inter-district choice and charter schools. Do parents who send their children to schools of choice or charter schools vote at…

Education researchers and political scientists have long raised theoretical objections to market-based reforms like school choice on the grounds that these policies may undermine public participation in democratic politics and erode public support for public institutions like schools. Little work, however, has empirically tested this claim.…

Background/Context: Robust civic engagement by young adults supports the aims of a democratic society, as well as college- and university-espoused commitments to the public good. Civic engagement also benefits students themselves. Although voting participation among young adults has shown modest increases from 2016 to 2020, work remains to be done…

While U.S. voters delivered a significant change in the 2024 federal elections, they opted for steady leadership at the state level. No state board of education shifted in partisan control, and only five seats saw a shift in political party out of 27 races that were contested in the general election. This policy update looks at the results of…