The movement to hold schools "accountable," and debates about alternative schooling options, governance arrangements, and other educational reform efforts are all based on the assumption that school quality strongly influences its students’ educational outcomes. There is also a strong theoretical basis and some empirical support for expecting that a student’s neighborhood will influence his or her academic achievement.

The growth of the foreign-born population in the United States, and the dispersion of the new arrivals to new areas, presents the states with both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, immigrants can revitalize declining communities and may provide a much-needed labor force. On the other hand, they can generate increased demand for public schools and other public services.

State efforts to respond to the challenges of immigration are complicated because federal law governs aspects of social welfare policy, identification policies, and deportation procedures.

Political science researchers have established a relationship between racial predispositions and political attitudes, such as opinions on welfare, in which the causal direction is commonly thought to be that an individual’s racial attitudes influence his or her views on welfare. The process by which these racial predispositions come to shape such political judgements and views is known as “racialization.” In the example of welfare, the more whites dislike blacks or stereotype them, the greater their antipathy toward welfare.

Professor Matthew Grossmann will examine the mechanisms by which high-income citizens influence policymaking. What are the routes through which high-income citizens and particular groups come to influence policy adoption? Why do public policy choices follow the opinions of the more affluent rather than the broader public?