11/9/04 — Voters in Washington state approved a high-profile ballot referendum to repeal a charter school law. Elsewhere across the nation, voters gave mixed signals on referenda regarding education issues.
Here’s a summary of the results of some of the education-related ballot questions:
• Washington — Voters approved a referendum to repeal a law enacted by the legislature earlier this year to allow charter schools in the state. This is the third time state voters rejected charter schools in the past decade.
A coalition formed to oppose Referendum 55 charged that charter schools would drain nearly $100 million in the coming years from existing public schools and that charter schools are not accountable to the public.
High-profile business leaders contributed big money to defeat Referendum 55, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, and Donald Fisher of Gap.
Washington voters also rejected — 61 percent to 39 percent — Initiative 884, which would have raised the state sales tax by a penny to the dollar to create an education trust fund. The sales-tax increase would have raised approximately $1 billion a year for K-12 education, preschools, and higher education.
• Oklahoma — State voters approved a ballot question to create a state lottery with the net proceeds — expected to be about $150 million a year — to support public education, technical education, and higher education. The measure easily passed with 64 percent of voters supporting it.
Oklahoma was just one of 10 states without a state-run lottery, and supporters of the measure noted that Oklahomans went to neighboring states to buy lottery tickets.
Also approved was a ballot question to give the state some of the profits and more authority over Oklahoma’s more than 80 Indian casinos and permit the state’s three horse racing tracks to allow more electronic gambling opportunities. The measure is expected to raise about $70 million a year for public education.
• Alabama — A proposed amendment to remove racist language from the state constitution was rejected.
One section of the amendment would have removed outdated “Jim Crow” provisions that mandated segregated schools and poll taxes. Another section would have removed language from the Alabama Constitution that says there is no right to an education at public expense. That provision was added to the constitution in 1956 in reaction to the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling.
Among those opposed to the amendment was ousted Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court (who had installed a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse) and the Christian Coalition of Alabama. They argued that passage of the amendment would have opened the door to large court-ordered tax increases.
According to the Alabama Association of School Boards, which supported the amendment, it would not have led to court-ordered spending for education because a previous constitutional amendment and other court decisions prohibit that.
• Michigan — A ballot measure that requires state voters to approve the creation or modification of any form of gambling, with the exception of casinos in Detroit and casinos run by Indian tribes, was passed.
According to the Michigan Association of School Boards, Proposition 1 will diminish the ability of the state lottery to increase funding for public education. Every new game introduced by the state’s lottery bureau will have to be approved in 1,700 local elections.
The measure was supported by major Las Vegas casinos, which own two of the three Detroit casinos, and Michigan’s Indian casinos as a means to keep keno and slot machines out of race tracks and thus prevent more competition.
Voters in Detroit rejected Proposal E, which would have given Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick control over the city’s public schools. The measure called for the school district to be run by a chief executive selected by the mayor and approved by an elected board.
The rejection of Proposal E means the state takeover of Detroit Public Schools that began in 1999 is over. The district will revert to a traditional system run by an elected school board and a superintendent hired without mayoral input.
• Arizona — Arizona voters passed Proposition 2, which is aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining some government services and registering to vote.
It requires public employees — including teachers and other school employees — to report anyone they suspect could be an undocumented immigrant to federal authorities. The measure imposes up to four months of jail time for any public employee who makes an error in enforcing immigration laws. The Arizona School Boards Association’s board of directors opposed the measure.
• Hawaii — All five of the state board of education candidates endorsed by Gov. Linda Lingle were defeated — three during the primary and two on Nov. 2. That greatly reduces the chance that Lingle’s proposal to break up the Hawaii Board of Education into at least seven regional boards will be enacted, reports a spokesperson for the Hawaii Department of Education.
• Arkansas — Voters rejected a property tax increase to support public schools. The measure would have raised the minimum millage from 25 to 28 mills.
• California — A ballot measure to expand casino gambling across the state was rejected. The California School Boards Association opposed it because it would not lead to increased funding for education and would have allowed the development of large casinos close to schools.
• Nevada — A measure to raise per-pupil spending in public schools to match or exceed the national average by July 1, 2012 failed. Voters did approve a measure to require the legislature to fund the operation of K-12 public schools before any other initiatives in the state budget.