Exploring Determinants of Government Innovation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article aims to empirically explain the variation in government innovation among local governments. To achieve this, the study uses school districts as units of analysis and tests six hypotheses. In the United States, school districts, as local governments, have sought to innovate and reform their traditional public education system by implementing various school choice movement tools. Among these, charter schools have been recognized as a key tool that drives school districts to innovate their traditional public education system. Through multiple ordinary least squares regression analysis, the study finds that three independent variables—contiguous school districts, student achievement, and minority population—are statistically significant. The findings indicate that a school district with 1) many contiguous school districts that have already operated the same innovative institution, 2) low student achievement, and 3) a high minority population is more likely to actively pursue its own government innovation. In introducing the principles of charter schools to Korea, this article emphasizes that to promote the spread of charter schools as a model of government innovation, it is important to highlight not only their autonomous nature but also the concept of equity.