The influence of the partisanship and composition of state governments on public school spending and student outcomes in the NCLB era

This study aims to provide empirical evidence of the influence of state political governance on public school funding, educational equity in school funding, and student academic achievement. Based on the theoretical framework of partisan theory, five research questions were proposed: (1) Do states with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures spend relatively more or less money per pupil in the public schools than states with Republican governors and Republican-majority legislatures during the period between 2001 and 2015?, (2) Do states with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures distribute school funds considering different needs of different students across school districts more or less fairly than a Republican unified state government during the period between 2001 and 2015?, (3) Do K-12 students in states with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures have relatively higher or lower scores on the fourth-grade NAEP reading test than those in a Republican unified state government during the period between 2001 and 2015?, (4) Do K-12 students in states with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures show relatively higher or lower scores on the fourth-grade NAEP math test than those in a Republican unified state government during the period between 2001 and 2015?, and (5) Do states with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures show relatively higher or lower high school graduation rate than states with Republican governors and Republican-majority legislatures during the period between 2001 and 2015?

A dataset is composed of state-level variables for six years: 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. A two-way fixed effects regression model was used for data analysis. This study finds that the party control and composition of state governments affect school funding and student outcomes. States with Democratic governors and Democratic-majority legislatures spend more per pupil than states with Republican governors and Republican-majority legislature. Students in states with a Democratic unified government score significantly lower than their peers in states with a Republican one on the NAEP 4th grade math and reading tests. This study also shows that expenditure per pupil is positively and significantly associated with student academic achievement. The results of this study provide evidence of policy divergence in school funding and disparities in student academic achievement depending on partisan control and composition of state government, which indicates that politics indeed matter in public education.