America's Voucher Politics

How Elites Learned to Hide the State

Ursula Hackett

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108491419
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108858144
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Governo americano

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Subtle Forms of Circumvention
• 1 America’s Foundational Identity Struggles
• 2 Two Dimensions of Attenuated Governance
• 3 The Racial Struggle: Segregation Grants in the Brown Era
• 4 The Religious Struggle: Vouchers and the Church–State Question
• 5 The Public–Private Struggle: Union Opposition and the Educational Establishment
• 6 Tax Credit Scholarships in an Era of Republican Dominance
• 7 Education Savings Accounts and Controversies Beyond
• Conclusion: Attenuated Governance and the State
• Appendix
• References
• Index