Republicans struggle on education ballot measures despite big wins Tuesday night

Republicans had a huge election night, capturing the White House and Senate and possibly keeping the House, but several of their state ballot measures on education issues came up short.

From school choice to partisan school board elections, the wins in the higher offices did not translate to the policies President-elect Trump and other conservatives support, with some states overwhelmingly voting against the measures.

Here is how some of the education issues panned out at the polls.

School choice

The conservative-backed school choice movement has seen multiple successes in statehouses, but voters in Kentucky, Nebraska and Colorado all rejected policies allowing taxpayer money to go toward existing or creating private schools.

In Kentucky, voters rejected a measure to amend the state’s constitution that would have paved the way for lawmakers to bring up school choice policies.

Nebraska voters overturned a state law that was passed in April allowing a $10 million fund to be created for students going to private schools, with 57 percent of voters overturning the fund as of early this morning.

Colorado fared no better for school choice advocates, as Amendment 80, which aimed to enshrine the right to school choice in the state constitution, failed.

Opponents of school choice had previously told The Hill they hoped failure at the ballot box would slow down the movement more broadly.

“I think it will — if all three fail, and even if two of the three fail, I think it will affect their strategy a little bit, because that would signal they’re almost at a max in terms of their capacity to bring about new states,” Joshua Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University and senior fellow at Education Law Center, said last week.

Partisan school board elections

Florida, which went overwhelmingly for Trump, voted to reject a GOP-backed change to allow for partisan school board elections. Only four states require the listing of political parties for school board elections, with the vast majority of such elections nationwide being nonpartisan.

Amendment 1 did get a majority of the vote, coming in around 55 percent, but a supermajority of 60 percent was needed to pass it.

“By rejecting Amendment 1, voters sent a clear message to politicians who want to infuse politics into our classrooms — students should always be our number one focus,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.

Republicans who back partisan school board elections argue having party affiliation helps voters in elections where they otherwise have to try to learn the policy positions of numerous candidates.

“I think it would help vote voters if they knew the party affiliation, because most voters simply cannot be informed from president to Senate to Congress to governor to their local legislators to county commissioners down to the school board. It's just too much,” said Rod Thomson, communications chair for the Republican Party of Sarasota County, according to local outlet WLRN.

State testing

Massachusetts saw a decisive victory for a unique issue regarding standardized testing in the state: Question 2 overturned the state’s requirement for high school students to pass a standardized test in order to graduate.

More than 58 percent of the vote went to end the test, which had been around for more than 30 years.

"In passing Question 2, Massachusetts voters have proclaimed that they are ready to let teachers teach, and students learn, without the onerous effects of a high-stakes standardized test undermining the mission of public education: to prepare all students for future success as citizens, workers and creative, happy adults," Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy said in a joint statement.

Those against the measure had said it is important to keep a high standard for all students graduating Massachusetts schools.

"The passage of Question 2 opens the door to greater inequity; our coalition intends to ensure that door does not stay open. Those responsible for our state’s public education system need to have an honest conversation about whether moving forward with this proposal is the right decision for Massachusetts," said John Schneider, chair of Protect Our Kids' Future.

School funding

Multiple states had measures on the ballot that would increase funding to public schools.

Arkansas, Rhode Island, New Mexico and Utah all passed various ways to get more money to their education systems.

In Utah, the annual distribution for school funding was raised from 4 percent to 5 percent. In Rhode Island, voters agreed to give $160 million to higher education for improvements to their facilities.

The measures won by a good margin in each state, with 90 percent approving more school funding in Arkansas and 65 percent in New Mexico.