Abstract: Chubb and Moe (1990), Coulson (1998), and others favor comprehensive school choice. In contrast, Guttman (1987), Smith and Meier (1995), and others argue that markets decrease participation in and resources devoted to public education. Synthesizing each, we test the proposition that market and political forces complement rather than detract from each other since when many parents exit traditional district schools, their actions signal school boards that those schools require leadership changes. We use a time series database tracking charter school market share and superintendent tenure in 45 Arizona school districts. We find evidence that school competition is associated with greater superintendent turnover, though ironically, the largest increases in turnover occur in those districts with relatively less competition.
AVAILABLE AT: http://cnx.org/content/m32570/latest/
Keywords: charter schools, Arizona, supt turnover
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