What School Proposals Failed on the Ballot?
The results of Tuesday’s elections could mean shifts in Common Core standards, teachers unions, and more.
Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core, but with a new Republican governor elected Tuesday—who opposes the standards for English language arts and math—that pioneering legacy could be upended. Indeed, while the 2016 presidential race has dominated the campaign news lately, state and local election results this week could have significant implications for education policy and funding, from Mississippi to Indianapolis, Indiana, and Jefferson County, Colorado.
In the Bluegrass State, Matt Bevin won what’s widely been described as an upset victory over the state’s Democratic attorney general. The governor-elect won’t be able to throw out Kentucky’s Common Core standards on his own, but he could appoint state school-board members who would support such a move. That’s not to say that approach wouldn’t face opposition. Kentucky’s newly hired state education commissioner—Stephen Pruitt—is a strong Common Core supporter. (Pruitt previously worked for Achieve, a national organization that played a key role in helping to craft the standards.) Bevin also campaigned heavily on school choice, and pledged to support a coalition of black ministers’ campaign to allow charter schools in the state, according to WDRB in Louisville.
In Louisiana, where a run-off race for governor takes place on November 21st, both John Bell Edwards, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican, have pledged to overhaul and replace the Common Core standards. However, replacing the state superintendent—whose office would be responsible for implementing the new standards—isn’t a unilateral decision the governor can make, as The Advocatereports. (John White, a rising young star among education “reformers,” currently holds the post of state schools’ chief.) And the majority of the leading candidates for Louisiana’s education board support the Common Core, according to the newspaper.
Here are some other education-related election results:
- In Mississippi, a campaign to force more state spending for education suffered a major setback at the polls, with 54 percent of voters rejecting a ballot measure that would have amended the state’s constitution and changed the formula for funding public schools. If the initiative had passed, the constitution would have been revised to require that the state—rather than the legislature—provide “an adequate and efficient system of public schools” and give courts the authority to enforce that mandate. This would have been a significant change for Mississippi, and brought it closer in line with the rest of the nation when it comes to school funding, as an article in the Clarion-Ledger explains.
- In Colorado, a high-profile—and highly unusual—recall vote ended the tenure of three conservative members of the Jefferson County School Board. All three had been elected in 2013 by wide margins in the wake of a backlash against a controversial data-management program, as Chalkbeat Colorado reports. The conservative board members ousted as a result of Tuesday’s election favored expanding charter schools and vouchers. Their replacements on the board, all Democrats, will serve out the remaining two years of their predecessors’ terms.
- Indianapolis voters elected a new Democratic mayor (after eight years of Republican control) but there are more questions than answers as to Mayor-elect Joe Hogsett’s positions on key education issues, including charter schools and teacher policies, according to Chalkbeat Indiana’s Scott Elliott. Elliott writes: “His five-point education plan focused on issues that sound more traditional than reform-oriented: Studying ways to reduce the impact of poverty on schools, expanding state-supported preschool for poor Did the 2015 Elections Put Common Core and School Funding At Risk? - The Atlantic: