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Opening the Door?: How Contemporary School Choice Policy in Alabama Operates in an Educational Landscape Marred by Historic Racial Tensions

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dc.contributorMann, Bryan
dc.contributorPatton, Dana
dc.contributorJi, Hyunjung
dc.contributorPark, Sungho
dc.contributor.advisorFording, Richard
dc.contributor.authorRogers, Annah
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-05T20:07:26Z
dc.date.available2022-07-05T20:07:26Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractPrivate school choice programs provide students with financial support to help reduce the costs of a private school education. In doing so, they often allow for a more diverse group of students to access private schools. In Alabama, the Alabama Educational Scholarship Program (AESP), a tax-credit scholarship program, allows students meeting income requirements to attend a participating private school of their choice. Across the nation, there is a limited supply of participating private schools. This fact inspired my first two research questions. First, I ask, do private school racial demographics impact the likelihood of participation in a school choice program? Past studies have found that administrators think about the impact of participation on their schools’ identities, and I argue that racial homogeneity may be a part of that identity for some schools. I find evidence that the most exclusively White schools are less likely to participate in the AESP; however, the effect is non-linear. My results show that schools that are 94% or more White are significantly less likely to participate than schools that are less than 85% White. I also ask whether the racial identities of potential “choice” students impact the likelihood of participation in a school choice program? I predict that schools will be influenced not only by their displayed preferences for diversity, but also by the racial diversity of potential choice students; however, I do not find support for this hypothesis.Finally, I ask, what impact does participation in a private school choice program have on levels of private school segregation? In the past researchers have found evidence that choice leads to increased levels of racial and socioeconomic segregation; however, these patterns have been primarily observed in public and charter schools. I find evidence of increased levels of racial isolation and decreased levels of exposure to White students for both Hispanic and Black students; however, I was not able to confirm that participation in the AESP was the cause of these changes. Ultimately, my findings expand our understanding of the relationship between choice and race, while also revealing potential avenues for new research.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/184302
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0004351
dc.identifier.otherRogers_alatus_0004D_14844
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8569
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectAlabama
dc.subjectEducation policy
dc.subjectSchool Choice
dc.subjectSegregation
dc.titleOpening the Door?: How Contemporary School Choice Policy in Alabama Operates in an Educational Landscape Marred by Historic Racial Tensionsen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Political Science
etdms.degree.disciplinePublic policy
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.leveldoctoral
etdms.degree.namePh.D.

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