Paper 1: Political Polarization, Policy Consistency, and Higher Education Policy

• In Event: The Rise of Partisanship in Higher Education Policymaking

Abstract

The rise in partisanship across the United States has been well-documented (Levendusky 2009). Its implications for higher education policymaking have been less clear. In recent decades, while partisanship in the states may have been sharp around particular issues, there was no national ideological agenda that tended to drive state policymaking . Republicans and Democrats sharply disagreed in the states on many issues, but with the exception of a few “hot button” national political issues such as abortion and gun control, there were not consistent ideological positions on many other issues (Krasa & Polborn 2014). Republican governors and legislators oversaw large increases in state funding for K-12 education and Medicaid. Democrats pushed for more prisons and more police. In general, policymaking at the state level did not show consistent patterns, particularly when compared with battles occurring at the federal level (Fiorina & Levendusky 2006).
This is particularly true of higher education. While political ideology at the voter level appears to be broadly related to changes in higher education policy, particularly changes in policy within a given state, the same patterns held weakly if at all during the 1980s and 1990s (Perna et al. 2014; McLendon et al. 2009). During the time period from 1984 to 1999, the proportion of a state legislature that was Democratic did not predict changes in appropriations for higher education. In the time period after 1999, the result was strong and statistically significant.
Political parties at the state level have not, until now, had consistent policymaking priorities for higher education. Based on the patterns we can observe in other areas such as K-12 education, health care and corrections, it is quite likely that this lack of policy consistency will change in the near future. Political parties and their representatives will begin to coalesce around consistent policy positions with regard to core issues in higher education such as appropriations, tuition, financial aid and accountability policies for institutions of higher education. This paper traces the rise of partisanship and policy consistency across the states, and discusses the implications of this coming change for higher education policy advocacy.

Author

• William Doyle, Vanderbilt University