In this article, we explore and discuss how the clustering of values in local educational governance manifests in the case of inclusion. Public values and the role that these play as mediating factors are important in local governance processes; however, they are often overlooked in empirical studies. Inclusion is interesting because it is…

In spring 2020, nearly every U.S. public school closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing evidence suggests that local political partisanship was a better predictor of in-person instruction than COVID case and death rates in fall 2020. We replicate and extend these analyses using data collected over the entirety of the 2020-21…

In the last decade, many political conflicts over K-12 education in the United States have increasingly divided along party lines. While it may seem like this development represents a sudden and surprising departure from a long-standing tradition of bipartisanship, I argue that the politics of education has been gradually growing more exposed to…

Since 2017, hostile anti-LGBTQ+ educational bills rapidly expanded. Using traditional and critical policy analysis across three Midwestern states, we examine (1) whether state and local policymakers (n = 60) adopted trans-inclusive protections aligned with the 2017 federal "Whitaker" ruling, (2) the spread and scope of state and local…

Since 2017, hostile anti-LGBTQ+ educational bills rapidly expanded. Using traditional and critical policy analysis across three Midwestern states, we examine (1) whether state and local policymakers (n = 60) adopted trans-inclusive protections aligned with the 2017 federal "Whitaker" ruling, (2) the spread and scope of state and local…