America's Voucher Politics : How Elites Learned to Hide the State

"What explains the explosive growth of school vouchers in the last two decades? In America's Voucher Politics, Ursula Hackett shows that the voucher movement is rooted in America's foundational struggles over religion, race, and the role of government versus the private sector. Drawing upon original datasets, archival materials, and more than one hundred interviews, Hackett shows that policymakers and political advocates use strategic policy design and rhetoric to hide the role of the state when their policy goals become legally controversial. For over sixty years of voucher litigation, white supremacists, accommodationists, and individualists have deployed this strategy of attenuated governance in court. By learning from previous mistakes and anticipating downstream effects, policymakers can avoid painful defeats, gain a secure legal footing, and entrench their policy commitments despite the surging power of rivals. An ideal case study, education policy reflects multiple axes of conflict in American politics and demonstrates how policy learning unfolds over time." --publisher description Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Subtle Forms of Circumvention The Growth of the Hidden State Legal Battles in the States Organization of the Book 1 America’s Foundational Identity Struggles Three Foundational Identity Struggles (and Six Institutional Orders) The Religious Struggle The Racial Struggle The Public–Private Struggle Legacies of Losing How Foundational Identity Struggles Give Rise to Attenuation Why Choose Attenuated Governance rather than Other Tactics? What about Playing to the Base Instead? Conclusion 2 Two Dimensions of Attenuated Governance Vouchers in America’s Foundational Identity Struggles The Rise of Vouchers Disaggregating the Hidden State Two Dimensions of Attenuated Governance Weakly and Deeply Attenuated Policy Relationships between the Dimensions of Attenuated Governance Strategic Learning about Attenuated Governance Hypotheses Conclusion 3 The Racial Struggle: Segregation Grants in the Brown Era Vouchers and Segregationist America Patterns of Support for Vouchers in Defense of Jim Crow Attenuated Policy Delivery Helped Avoid Legal Challenge Veneer of Color Blindness amid Intensive Contestation “The Nonobvious Involvement of the State in Private Conduct” Vouchers’ Continued Entanglement with Racial Controversies Racial Struggles and Voucher Votes Conclusion 4 The Religious Struggle: Vouchers and the Church–State Question “Oh Yeah, It Was White Hot”: Church–State Jurisprudence in the Religious Struggle Constitutional Obstacles for the Accommodationist Order Blaine Barriers? “The Tentacles of the State”: Attenuation as Protection for Both Sides Vouchers Rise Again in the 1990s Quasi-direct Vouchers and the Church–State Question CBT Is Tested by Quasi-direct Vouchers Conclusion 5 The Public–Private Struggle: Union Opposition and the Educational Establishment “It’s the Slow Dismantling of the Public System as We Know It” Constitutional Challenge in the Public–Private Struggle Vouchers and the Public School Establishment The Growth of Antivoucher Sentiment among Unionists “Who Will Win? Our Children or the Powerful Teacher’s Union?” Teacher Union Weakness? How Unions and Superintendents Oppose Vouchers Attenuation Helps Proponents Avoid the “Defunding” Criticism Texas and Missouri: The “Education Establishment” Fights Back Effects of Unionization on State Legislator Votes for and against Vouchers “The Legislature Was Doing Indirectly What It Is Forbidden to Do Directly” Conclusion 6 Tax Credit Scholarships in an Era of Republican Dominance Doubly Distanced Tax Credits in An Era of Republican Dominance “We Have to Bypass”: Why Policymakers Choose Doubly Distanced Policies “The Scholarship Tuition Organizations Are a Different Animal” Learning from Other States about Doubly Distanced Policies “Public Education Should Be about Public Money Going to Educate a Child and Not about an Institution” Republicans and Conservatives Grow the Hidden State Doubly Distanced Tax Credits: A Test How Does Attenuated Program Design Work? Three Alternative Accounts Existing conflict Program Age Distributional Effects Conclusion 7 Education Savings Accounts and Controversies Beyond Distanced-Direct Education Savings Accounts and Beyond Attenuation through Broadening Narrowing for Palatability The Legal Advantages of ESAs When Losers Become Winners in Foundational Identity Struggles Judges and the Future of Vouchers Conclusion Conclusion: Attenuated Governance and the State “Ancillary Indirect Benefits to such Institutions do not Render Improper those Government Expenditures that are Otherwise Permissible” Three Fundamental Struggles (and Six Institutional Orders): How the Hidden State Grows How Courts Construct the State Opposition to Doubly Distanced Policies: The Normative Case Do Ideas Really Matter? Attenuated Governance: Key Contributions Attenuated Governance: The Strategic Landscape Legacies of Losing Appendix Empirical Strategy Interviewees Voucher Vignettes: Voucher Passage in the States New York: No Vouchers in a Democratic State Louisiana: Segregation Grants and Posthurricane Vouchers California: No Vouchers and a Referendum Defeat Florida: School Choice through Vouchers and Tax Credits Illinois: Tax Credits but No Vouchers Michigan: Repeated Referendum Failures Missouri: No Vouchers despite Republican Control Ohio: Early Success and Continued Voucher Passage Utah: Vouchers Fall by Referendum Voucher Targeting The Modern Voucher Landscape Multilevel Logistic Regression Results Addressing Selection Concerns References Index Drawing upon original datasets and candid interviews, Hackett explains how elites insulate their programs from legal challenge amid deep-seated religious, racial, and civic controversies in American politics. With education policy as a revealing case study, this book will interest scholars across political science, law, and public policy.