School Choice and the Future of American Democracy

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I would like to thank my dissertation advisers: R. Douglas Arnold, Larry M. Bartels, and Jennifer L. Hochschild. At each step of the process, Doug, Larry, and Jennifer guided and often pushed me to go beyond what I thought I could do. Graduate students are, in many ways, the interaction terms of their advisers, combining diverse thoughts and approaches in trying to make something of their own. The care and thoughtfulness of these three individuals have helped make this project much more than would have been possible otherwise and have made me feel very, very fortunate. I owe so much to all of them, but especially to Doug. I would also like to offer special thanks to Lawrence R. Jacobs of the University of Minnesota and to anonymous reviewers of the manuscript. Their comments and suggestions were crucial in framing the arguments that transformed the dissertation into a book. Any mistakes and omissions are mine alone. I would like to thank the graduate students, faculty, and staff of the Politics Department at Princeton University for their guidance, suggestions , and assistance over the years. In particular, I would like to thank Jameson Doig, Fred Greenstein, Christopher Mackie, Tali Mendelberg, Nathan Scovronick, Thomas Romer, Christa Scholtz, and Keith Whittington . At the University of Minnesota, I am indebted to pretty much everybody for their help, suggestions, commiseration, and/or encouragement . For speci‹c advice on and suggestions for this project, I would like to thank Christopher Federico, John Freeman, James Farr, Timothy Johnson, Jeffrey Lomonoco, Joanne Miller, Wendy Rahn, and David Samuels. This research was partially funded through a grant from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs Faculty Interactive Research Program, and I would like to thank Tom Scott, Will Craig, and CURA’s staff for their invaluable assistance. I would also like to thank Robert J. Schmidt, Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals, and P. Fred Storti, Executive Director of the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association. In addition, I am indebted to Rossana Armson, Pam Jones, and Marc Wagoner from the Minnesota Center for Survey Research and graduate student assistants Angela Bos and Jeff Hubbard. Many others outside of Minnesota and Princeton have contributed as well, including John J. DiIulio Jr., R. Kenneth Godwin, Sanford Gordon, Jeffrey Henig, Gregory Huber, Jeffrey Lewis, Kenneth Meier, Suzanne Mettler, Robert Maranto, Michael Mintrom, J. Eric Oliver, Mark Schneider , and Paul Teske. I owe much to all of these scholars. I would also like to thank Jim Reische, Amy Anderson, Kevin Rennells, and the staff of the University of Michigan Press for all of their help and assistance. This project would not have been possible without the generosity of the public school principals in my studies. Though they remain anonymous, I would like to thank them for their commitment, openness, and insight. I would also like to thank my parents. They gave me the 1990 Cadillac DeVille that I used to traverse the highways and byways of New Jersey, and so much more. Finally, I would like to thank the Ramones for “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.” This book would not have been the same without it. Scott Abernathy Minneapolis June 2005 x Acknowledgments ...