Politics and Latino Education at the Turn of the Century

David Leal

My research will examine whether Latino political representation and community resources are associated with educational outcomes. The first component will consist of a new and expanded version of the landmark Kenneth Meier and Joseph Stewart book, The Politics of Hispanic Education, in likely collaboration with Meier and Valerie Martinez-Ebers. It will be based on educational data collected through an original school district survey, Department of Education statistics, and 2000 U.S. Census data. The goal is not to restate the problematic condition of Latino education, but to test whether Latino political representation and community resources are associated with Latino educational outcomes. Second, I will build on the above efforts by developing regression models that help explain whether objective conditions or political influence (such as local school board power held by Latinos) are associated with educational policy outcomes. Some of these variables may come from the efforts discussed above, but I also plan on using existing educational datasets and conducting supplemental surveys. Such dependent variables include bilingual education expenditures, sex education programs, school violence prevention programs, and other policy outcomes. This will allow me to recreate with Frederick Hess our publications on urban school policy outcomes with new and better data, and to expand the study to suburban and rural districts as well. As always, the key factor of interest will be Latino community influence.

About David Leal

David L. Leal is an Assistant Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He previously taught at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. He received a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University in 1998 and a BA in Political Science with honors from Stanford University. His research interests include Hispanic politics, education policy, campaigns and elections, and the U.S. Congress. He has published articles in journals such as British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Political Behavior, Social Science Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Urban Affairs Review, Educational Policy, Urban Education, and the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Leal was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow from 1998-99 in the office of Senator John Kerry (D-MA).