Public schools exist to educate students. Local school districts are governed by elected school boards. But only adults vote in local school board elections. I argue that these three facts are the primary cause of low academic achievement in American public schools, particularly for the most disadvantaged students. The institutions of democratic control cause unacceptably poor performance because the main concerns of adults who vote in local school board elections are not aligned with the academic needs of students. Adult interests – organized around partisanship, identity politics, employment concerns, and property values – dictate what schools do, often at the expense of academic achievement. I also argue that the existing literature, focused on the debate about the role of money and teachers’ unions in education, overlooks other major problems with public education. Finally, I also anticipate the main counterarguments to my thesis and “prebunk” them by showing why they are wrong.

Historically, African-Americans have found work disproportionately in the public sector, including in local school districts, and I argue that this has created impediments to improving public education in majority Black cities. Educational reforms are evaluated primarily based on how they impact adult employment opportunities, not student learning. Often, the loss of local democratic control is necessary to overcome opposition to reforms driven by employment concerns. I illustrate these dynamics with two case studies of (1) the integration of schools in the South after Brown v. Board of Education and (2) the state takeover of New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina.