@EdWorkingPaper{ai25-1186,
title = "School Choice and Household Participation in School District Politics",
author = "Aliyah Mcilwain, Sarah Reckhow, Antonia C. Gordon",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "1186",
year = "2025",
month = "May",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1186",
abstract = {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 lower or higher rates than those who use their residentially assigned public school in a school-specific bond election? We conduct our analysis by matching student level data to the Michigan voter file based on addresses, to identify voter households with children enrolled in school by type. We find that household voter turnout in off-cycle school bond elections is significantly lower for households with children who participate in school choice—both charter and inter-district choice. Household turnout is 15 percent lower in households with children in inter-district choice and 12 percent lower in households where children attend charter schools. These numbers are large enough to potentially impact the outcome of very close school bond elections. There are also large differences in turnout rate associated with race/ethnicity and economically disadvantaged households.},
}