2006 Election Coverage: Results on state ballot measures mostly good news for school boards
11/21/07 -- Voters approved a measure to increase Arizona’s tobacco tax by 80 cents to pay for early childhood health and development programs.
Voters also approved amendments addressing the state’s immigrant population. One measure amends the Arizona Constitution to make English the official language of the state. The other prohibits non-citizens from taking adult education classes and having in-state status for attending state colleges and universities.
Two measures on the Colorado ballot that would have required school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets on classroom instruction were rejected by large margins.
Amendment 39 would have changed the state constitution and was backed by a national group called First Class Education that has been campaigning for similar spending limits, mostly unsuccessfully, across the nation. Referendum J, placed on the ballot by the legislature, would have imposed the 65 percent limit by statute.
The Colorado Association of School Boards opposed both measures because they would have set arbitrary limits on school expenditures and curtailed local control of education.
Idaho voters failed to pass a ballot measure that would have increased K-12 funding by adding 1 cent to the state sales tax, bringing it to 6 cents.
Iowa’s newly elected governor, Democrat Chet Culver, opposes tuition tax credits for people who send their children to private schools. His Republican opponent, Jim Nussle, who served eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and chaired the Budget Committee, proposed increasing the state’s tuition tax credit from $250 to $1,500 for people who send their children to private schools.
Elections to the Kansas State Board of Education could have implications for the state’s anti-evolution science standards. Two of the conservative members who supported the standards, Ken Willard and John Bacon, were re-elected, but moderates who want to overturn the standards have a 6-4 majority. Their first agenda item when the board reconvenes in January is to rework the standards, which critics charge promote “intelligent design.
Michigan voters failed to pass a proposal to require the state to provide annual funding increases for school districts and higher education equal to the rate of inflation. A ballot measure to amend Michigan’s Constitution to ban affirmative action programs was passed.
Nebraska citizens voted to repeal a state law that forced school districts to consolidate. That law, passed a year ago, required all school districts to provide K-12 services and resulted in the termination of 220 elementary school-only districts.
Many of the closed districts have already sold their school buildings and their teachers have left. A federal judge will decide what happens next.
Democrat Eliot Spitzer’s election as governor of New York could mean more funding for the New York City school system. On the campaign trail, Spitzer, the state’s attorney general, vowed to resolve the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit and provide up to $8.5 billion a year more for schools in New York City and other disadvantaged districts across the state.
Four pro-evolution candidates were elected or re-elected to the Ohio state board of education, where the state’s position on evolution was a big issue. In a race that drew national attention, Tom Sawyer, who had served 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and is pro-evolution, beat anti-evolution incumbent Deborah Owens Fink by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. The election results mean the pro-evolution board members have a majority.
Jim Rex, a Democrat, was narrowly elected state superintendent of education in South Carolina, where the main issue was vouchers. His pro-voucher opponent, Republican Karen Floyd, raised more money, mainly from out-of-state voucher supporters. Rex, a former teacher, opposes vouchers.
The defeat of the abortion ban got the most attention in South Dakota, but voters in the state also soundly defeated a ballot issue that would have let people seek criminal charges against judges and other government officials -- potentially including school board members -- they believe violated their rights.
Wisconsin voters re-elected Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, who supports more funding to reduce class sizes in grades K-3 and guaranteed admission and state aid to a state college for any student who signed up in eighth grade and maintained a B average.
His Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, favored expanding the Milwaukee voucher program and requiring school districts to spend at least 70 percent of their budgets on instruction-related costs.
| Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2006, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789. |