Partisan Schools: The Political Alignment of Charter School Leadership

One of the promises of the school choice movement has been the development of schools that serve unique interests of different families with specific educational philosophies. In this study we examine how one form of school choice – charter schools – provides different political philosophies as well. By testing for correlations between the partisan composition of charter school boards and word concepts appearing in charter schools’ mission and vision statements, we show empirically that schools run by Democrats and schools run by Republicans value different things. While charter schools may offer experiences tailored to educational preferences, we argue that they offer experiences tailored to political preferences as well.