The nature of who is involved in making education policy is rapidly changing. At the local level, an increasingly diverse body of policymakers is in place with the potential for improved representation for marginalized groups. On the other hand, state-level education policymakers are being called upon to be more involved in making education policy, and state education policymakers are indeed tightening the education policymaking reins. Yet, we know very little about who state education policymakers are and how they go about making education policy decisions. This dissertation draws upon theories of institutionalism, representation, and policy responsiveness to examine (a) who gains state education policymaking power, (b) whose voices are heard in the state education policymaking process, and (c) the ways in which individual and institutional characteristics mediate the voices and victors in the state education policymaking process. I utilize demographic data of state legislators serving on education committees and state board of education (SBE) members across all 50 states, as well as data collected in a national experiment-based survey of state education policymakers and interviews with 44 state education policymakers located in six states. Although I find that state education policymakers are neither descriptively nor substantively representative of their constituents, considerable differences between state legislators and SBE members exist with regard to who they turn to when making education policy decisions. These results provide important insight into the way citizens think about the avenues through which they could engage, interact, and share important policy-relevant information and experiences with state education policymakers.
Read
