Expertise and Independence on Governing Boards: Evidence from School Districts

This study by Ying Shi and John D. Singleton uses a natural experiment to examine how the presence of a professional educator on a school board influences education decisions, including the percentage of students who are enrolled in charter schools. The likelihood a school board will have a professional educator depends on random variation in candidate order on school board election ballots. The authors compare school boards with higher and lower likelihoods of electing a professional educator using this random variation. A higher likelihood of a school board having a professional educator results in a lower percentage of students enrolled in charter schools within a given district.