Replication Data for: Politics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education’s Response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine how local governments respond to a public health crisis amid high levels of partisan polarization. As an arena that has historically been relatively insulated from national partisan cleavages, public schools provide a useful window into understanding the growing nationalization of local politics. Leveraging the fact that all school districts had to adopt a fall reopening plan, we assess the factors that influenced school district reopening decisions. We find that mass partisanship and vested interests most explain the degree to which schools reopened. Republican (Democratic) districts were far more (less) likely to reopen in-person, while districts with stronger unions relied more on remote learning. Notably, we find little connection between reopening decisions and indicators measuring the severity of the virus. Finally, public schools were sensitive to the threat of student exit. Districts located in counties with more Catholic schools were somewhat more likely to reopen in-person. We assess the implications of these findings for US education policy and the study of local government more generally.