Democracy at Work ? School Board Elections and Reform

Debates over urban school reform have become voluminous and heated, and scholarly research has focused primarily on the impact of various reforms. Research should also trace the impact of conflicts over political reform on voting in school board elections. We examine three school board elections in St. Louis between 2003 and 2006. In each election, the mayor organized a supported a slate of reform candidates to enact significant reforms in the public school system. The slate won the first election and lost the next two elections. Common theories of voting in city elections fail to adequately explain voting in these elections. St. Louis is a city with a tradition of machine-style patronage politics, and we find evidence of class-based conflict over political reform. The reform cleavage played an increasing role in the city’s school board elections as campaigns focused more on debates over reform versus politics as usual. Thanks to Stephanie Lindley and Laura Wiedlocher for research assistance.