Education researchers and political scientists have long raised theoretical objections to market-based reforms like school choice on the grounds that these policies may undermine public participation in democratic politics and erode public support for public institutions like schools. Little work, however, has empirically tested this claim. Drawing on a unique dataset of 191 off-cycle school bond elections in Michigan school districts between 2005 and 2017, this paper employs regression modeling to test whether voter turnout and school bond passage rates are lower in districts where school choice exit participation is high. Results show that a 1 percentage point increase in a district’s school choice participation rate is associated with a 1% decline in voter turnout in that district’s school bond elections. This result is statistically significant even when controlling for other community and election characteristics associated with voter turnout. However, differential relationships are revealed for exit via charter schools and exit via interdistrict public school choice. The data do not reveal a significant relationship between school choice and the odds of bond passage on election day.

中文翻译：

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牺牲民主？学校选择、选民投票率和学校债券选举结果

长期以来，教育研究人员和政治学家一直对择校等市场化改革提出理论反对，理由是这些政策可能会削弱公众对民主政治的参与，并削弱公众对学校等公共机构的支持。然而，很少有工作对这一说法进行实证检验。本文利用 2005 年至 2017 年密歇根学区 191 次非周期学校债券选举的独特数据集，采用回归模型来测试选民投票率和学校债券通过率是否在学校选择退出参与率较高的地区较低。结果表明，一个学区的学校选择参与率每增加 1 个百分点，该学区学校债券选举的选民投票率就会下降 1%。即使在控制与选民投票率相关的其他社区和选举特征时，这一结果在统计上也是显着的。然而，通过特许学校退出和通过跨区公立学校选择退出，揭示了差异关系。数据并未显示学校选择与选举日通过债券的几率之间存在显着关系。