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.新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）为研究高度党派极化背景下地方政府如何应对公共卫生危机提供了独特契机。作为长期以来相对脱离全国党派分歧的领域，公立学校为理解地方政治日益全国化的趋势提供了有效视角。本研究依托所有学区均需制定秋季复课方案这一事实，对影响学区复课决策的各类因素展开评估。研究发现，群体党派立场与既得利益是解释学校复课程度的最核心因素：共和党（民主党）占比更高的学区开展线下复课的概率显著更高（更低），而工会力量更强的学区则更倾向于采用远程教学模式。值得注意的是，本研究发现复课决策与衡量病毒传播严重程度的各项指标之间几乎不存在关联。此外，公立学校的决策对学生流失威胁较为敏感，所在县域内天主教学校数量更多的学区，其开展线下复课的概率相对更高。本研究最后探讨了上述发现对美国教育政策以及更广泛的地方政府研究的启示意义。