Backlash? Schooling Reassignments and the Politics of School Desegregation

For nearly 30 years, the Wake County Public County School System (WCPSS) in North Carolina operated an ambitious desegregation initiative, which included reassigning students to schools in order to achieve a target level of diversity in each of the county’s schools. However, in 2009, voters elected opponents of the efforts to the school board, who then ended the initiative the following year. Political scientist Deven Carlson and sociologist Thurston Domina will examine how school reassignments influenced voter participation over time. They will utilize data on school reassignments and voting data for their study.