Perceived Partisan Preemption: When and Where States Override Local School Boards

Abstract

While school boards played a prominent role in deciding district policies during COVID, many found themselves overruled by state policies. Using survey data of individual school board members, we assess if members who represent districts that are politically out-of-step with their state’s partisan preferences report perceived policy preemption more often than districts with members who are more aligned with partisan preferences of the state. We find members who are in districts that are incongruent with state level partisanship were more likely to report that the state tried but failed to preempt the board. If a district vote for president was 10 percentage points different than the state, then it would increase the likelihood that the member perceives preemption by 10 percentage points. When we focus on members who reported perceived successful state preemption attempts, the only significant variable is district size. Political incongruence with the state was associated with perceived attempts at preemption but not reports of perceived successful preemption.