A study co-authored by a 电子游戏软件 political scientist has found that local political conditions—not science or the severity of COVID-19—were the most important factor in determining whether K-12 public school districts chose to offer in-person classes this fall.
迈克尔·哈特尼(李·佩莱格里尼饰)
政治学助理教授迈克尔·哈特尼和莱斯利·芬格, 北德克萨斯大学的助理教授, 仔细审查了近10个决定,000 school districts—about 75 percent of the nation’s total public school districts—on bringing back students to the classroom as the school year began. Accounting for the intensity of COVID-19 and the availability of private schooling alternatives in a given district, Hartney and Finger discovered that political allegiances were the best indicator of how the district decided to proceed.
具体地说, the researchers looked at the share of the 2016 vote won by Donald Trump for the county in which a school district resides, 以及当地教师工会的力量——主要由地区规模来衡量, 电子游戏正规平台表明，工会在较大的地区是最强的. Even when Hartney and Finger compared schools in counties that experienced very similar pandemic conditions, 政治党派关系强烈地预测了学校如何选择重新开放.
例如, counties that voted 60 percent for Hillary Clinton were nearly 20 percentage points less likely to hold in-person classes than counties that backed Donald Trump by the same margin. Districts with stronger teachers unions were also far less likely to bring students back to the classroom.
另外, the study showed the presence of Catholic schools was a factor in reopening plans: Public school districts surrounded by large numbers of Catholic schools were less likely to offer remote-only instruction.
在挥发性, 过度紧张的美国政治气氛, a report that suggests the magnitude of political partisanship in everyday life might well become political partisan fodder itself, Hartney承认. 但他和芬格希望“政治, 市场, and Pandemics: Public Education’s Response to COVID-19” will inform discussions and understanding of education policy and the functioning of American local governments.
“The pandemic is an opportunity to see how local governments deal with a public health crisis in the midst of extreme political polarization, 在地方问题被国有化的时候,哈特尼说, 斯坦福大学胡佛电子游戏正规平台所本学年的奖学金获得者. “这不是人种学电子游戏正规平台，我们在学校董事会会议上做笔记. 澄清一下, we are not passing judgment on any particular school board’s decision or making any 状态ment about the quality of discussions that took place leading up to them. 这项电子游戏正规平台也没有反映出后来可能发生的学校计划的变化.
“The main takeaway here is that neither Republicans or Democrats have a monopoly on what form school reopenings have taken: Most school districts—53 percent—in our sample began the year with a hybrid plan, using both in-person and remote learning; among the rest, 24%是远程操作, 剩下的23%完全是面对面的. 仍然, we feel it is revealing to see what was the first instinct schools followed in setting their policies, 而且证据强烈地指向了政治, 非COVID病例率, 推动那些早期的决定.”
The influence of partisanship on school reopening plans reflects an ongoing national politicization of local issues in recent years, Hartney说, 特朗普威胁要停止为未能重新开学的学校提供资金就证明了这一点, 以及他声称民主党为了选举利益想要边远阶级. 这种政治化已经蔓延到其他领域, 特别是科学和公共卫生, which while regarded as major considerations in school reopening discussions do not present as the ultimate determinant, 根据这项电子游戏正规平台.
哈特尼是这样说的:“如果是这样的话, there are a large number of districts in coronavirus hot spots that shouldn’t be open for in-person classes—but they are. And there are a lot of districts in places where cases are low that should be open for in-person classes—but they aren’t.”
人们常常误解公立学校的管理是超越“正常”政治的, 说Hartney. 几十年来,, most 状态s have relied on non-partisan elections—where candidates do not identify as belonging to a political party—for school boards; typically, 这些地方选举并不与常规的联邦选举同时进行, 理论上减少党派之争的可能性. 但最终, 他指出, 公立学校是政府机构，将受到民主政治力量的影响. 父母 and students—and teachers and school administrators—are only among several constituencies with whom school boards must deal.
在这种情况下, Hartney说, national political clashes on issues such as school reform and school choice filter down to the local level. 《电子游戏正规平台》(政治)中的电子游戏正规平台结果表明了这一点, 市场, and Pandemics” of a correlation between the number of Catholic schools in a given market and the extent to which local public schools’ reopening plans included in-person classes. 该电子游戏正规平台指出，在初秋, 大波士顿天主教学校的电子游戏软件人数猛增, most of which were offering fully in-person instruction while many public schools were online; a similar trend seems to have taken place in Nashville.
“Public schools are bound to become concerned when they stand to lose students to private schools or homeschooling, 尤其是在这样的危机中,哈特尼解释说. “在平时, many families won’t give serious consideration to private schooling because of the added cost. But the calculus changes when the neighborhood public school announces that it will only be offering remote instruction. 家庭现在可以考虑支付天主教学校或教区学校的学费, 如果这些学校提供面对面的指导. This simple fact is likely to weigh on school boards as they contemplate their reopening plans.”
While it’s understandable that some may view with alarm the influence of political partisanship in school reopening decisions, 他说, 还有另一种解释:是好是坏, local school boards are responding to the priorities and concerns being voiced by their constituents, 在民主问责制的传统中.
“再一次, our study isn’t casting blame on school boards for their decisions; they are supposed to reflect the mood of the communities that they serve. 有各种各样的政策决定, 在本地, 状态, 国家层面, 这并不一定与科学或专家意见有关. 打扫街道可能没有民主党或共和党之分, 但是从我们所看到的, 在重新开放学校的问题上，显然有两种截然不同的党派立场.”
阅读“政治、市场和流行病:公共教育对COVID-19的反应”.
肖恩·史密斯|大学传播| 2020年10月