Race and Support for State Takeovers of Local School Districts

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.