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It’s not that Americans have a Jekyll and Hyde mentality on this issue. The reality is that the teachers’ unions and left-wing education activists have managed to weaponize ballot amendments by out-funding and out-organizing their opponents, even as they confuse and scare voters.
It turned out to be yet another head scratcher for school choice advocates on Election Day, with Americans overwhelmingly voting in school choice candidates that will likely lead to more school choice policies, while voting against any amendment that would have advanced school choice.
So what happened?
As the Freedom Center has detailed, in poll after poll Americans widely favor school choice — and that preference cuts across ethnicity, sex, political party, age, and geographic location. Yet on Election Day, voters once again rejected school choice in all three states in which it was on the ballot.
And it’s not the first time. Whenever school choice has been put to a direct vote by the people, it has lost. Here’s what happened this year.
Colorado asked voters if they would like to establish a right to school choice in the state’s constitution. The amendment wouldn’t have initiated any school choice policy but simply would have paved the way for the legislature to enact a program.
Amendment 80 was put to voters like this:
“Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution establishing the right to school choice for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, and, in connection therewith, declaring that school choice includes neighborhood, charter, and private schools; home schooling; open enrollment options; and future innovations in education?”
Not surprisingly, teachers’ unions and other public school advocates were against the measure, including the Colorado Education Association, the Colorado PTA, Stand for Children, and the ACLU Colorado.
What was surprising was that the amendment also drew opposition from the Christian Home Educators of Colorado. That was due to language in the amendment’s text saying that “all children have the right to a quality education”; some homeschool groups and parents were concerned on who would decide whether an education was a “quality” one and whether it would open the door to more government regulation of homeschooling.
In the end, not even 50 percent voted for the amendment, ultimately falling short of the 55 percent needed to pass.
Kentucky is a notoriously puzzling state when it comes to politics. It had a long history of voting for Democratic candidates for state offices and Republican candidates in federal elections. In recent years, that began to change, with voters choosing a Republican supermajority in the legislature and a conservative Governor Matt Bevin in 2015, while retaining its penchant for voting Republican for national offices.
However, Kentucky’s volatile political situation is largely the result of its powerful teachers’ union, and Kentucky remains one of only a few states in the country with absolutely no school choice programs.
Bevin soon ran afoul of the teachers’ unions, not only because he was clearly in favor of school choice but because he also wanted to balance the pension fund. This ultimately led to his ouster in 2019, with the voters electing Democrat Andy Beshear, who was (and still is) a strong supporter of teachers’ unions and a fierce opponent of school choice. Beshear won reelection in 2023.
While Bevin and Republican legislators advanced a public charter school law in 2017, the Kentucky Supreme Court found it to be unconstitutional.
In 2021, the state legislature passed a tax credit school voucher law which would have been funded through individuals and corporations, but that too was ruled unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
As such, the only way for the legislature to advance school choice laws was to have the state constitution amended.
Amendment 2 asked voters if they were in favor of the General Assembly being able to provide for schools outside the system of “common (public) schools.”
Much like Colorado, the amendment wouldn’t have established any specific school choice program but would have simply created the constitutional ability for the legislature to enact a program.
As expected, the amendment faced fierce opposition from teachers and teachers’ unions, who claimed that voters needed to “protect our public schools.” Their messaging focused heavily on the “negative” of public tax dollars being taken from public schools and given to private schools through vouchers.
On Election Day, the amendment was defeated soundly, with 65 percent of voters voting “no” and every Kentucky county rejecting it.
Nebraska’s Legislative Bill 1402 which was passed earlier this year, also faced much opposition from teachers’ unions. The law had passed easily and created a school choice scholarship program for low-income and special needs students and children of military members to attend private schools. In the face of opposition, though, lawmakers blinked and changed the law. As we reported in September:
“The fund initially totaled $25 million and was to be funded by donations that would have awarded ‘dollar-for-dollar’ tax credits. The law also contained an ‘escalator,’ which eventually would increase the fund to $100 million. By contrast, the new 2024 law offers $10 million in appropriations with no tax credits.”
Despite the attempt at compromise, opponents of school choice challenged the law and created a ballot initiative, Referendum 435, to repeal the law.
On Election Day, 57 percent of voters chose to kill the school choice program, which will now send the already appropriated $10 million to public schools.
By contrast, pro-school choice candidates faired extremely well in the election. Donald Trump, who advocates for universal school choice nationwide, not only easily won both the Electoral College and the national popular vote but he won nearly 65 percent of the vote in Kentucky and over 60 percent of the vote in Nebraska.
Meanwhile, many other school choice candidates won state races. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has long been a staunch supporter of vouchers, despite experiencing strong opposition from Democrats and some Republicans in the state legislature. In response, Abbott campaigned against some state legislator candidates in the primary and general election who were against school choice while supporting pro-school choice candidates.
In Tuesday’s election, all 11 of the pro-school choice candidates Abbott endorsed won their elections. Abbott has since announced that with the majority now headed to the statehouse, he expects the legislature will soon pass school choice legislation in Texas.
In Pennsylvania, U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, who has supported school choice, unseated incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
In Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun won re-election over Casey McCormick, the former state superintendent of education, who switched from the GOP to the Democratic Party over education policy. McCormick has been a fierce opponent of school choice and focused her campaign on eliminating the state’s voucher program, while Braun is a supporter of school vouchers.
So the question remains: Why do voters largely support school choice and school choice candidates but refuse to vote for school choice amendments?
It seems like they must have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mentality, but the reasons are more foundational to what it actually takes to effect political change.
Neal McCluskey, the director of The Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, says that a highly motivated and highly organized opposition is extremely difficult for school choice proponents to overcome.
“Referenda for school choice are always at a disadvantage because you’re trying to take on entrenched, easily organized interests who defend the status quo, and they can put a lot of money into defending the status quo and a lot of boots on the ground,” he said.
McCluskey says that while parents would like to have school choice, they aren’t sure of its details or if their families would be eligible.
By contrast, the entrenched establishment, in this case teachers’ unions and left-wing education advocates, recognize how much money and power are at stake, and they are going to fight — often unfairly — to keep those things in place, even if it is to the detriment of the students they claim to care about.
“You have a highly motivated, relatively easily organized group of people who will defend the status quo, and it’s very hard to balance that out on the pro-school choice side, in large part because parents can’t go out every weekend and campaign for it,” McCluskey says.
Michael McShane, director of national outreach at EdChoice, also pointed to funding and the level of motivation as reasons for the defeats.
For example, he cites that in Nebraska anti-school choice advocates spent $7.42 million while the pro school choice advocates only spent $1.45 million. Exact funding amounts can be difficult to find. The Lexington Herald Leader reported that about $8 million was raised on each side of Kentucky’s ballot amendment. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, contributed nearly $6 million to the anti-school choice campaign in the Bluegrass State.
McShane also notes that the ballot amendments didn’t offer voters much. Colorado and Kentucky’s amendments didn’t propose any concrete position or program telling voters what the benefit of voting for them would be, only that it would allow legislators to spend more money.
He criticized Nebraska for trying to compromise with anti-school choice advocates and giving voters only a small benefit.
Anti-school choice advocates also use effective, emotional messaging. Voters need information to really understand what school choice is, how it is funded, and what its benefits are to students. Political slogans are rarely comprehensive and opponents’ claims that school choice will somehow steal money from public schools and cause them harm have swayed many a voter.
While money and messaging are important, the real problem is with ballot amendments themselves.
The Founding Fathers were strongly opposed to direct democracy, citing the possibility of the tyranny of the majority and mob rule. They founded the nation as a federalist republic, which is why they also included a process that would make the federal Constitution very difficult to amend.
By contrast, state ballot amendments, particularly those that require only a small majority, are examples of direct democracy. Not only are they a form of mob rule, but they undermine the constitutional authority of the legislative process.
Ballot amendments tend to favor special interests and are almost always won by those with the most money, time, and other resources.
Teachers’ unions and public school staff are already organized. They are funded by taxpayer dollars. They see school choice as a threat to their monopoly on children’s minds and their parents’ tax dollars. Teachers’ unions, who want zero competition spurring them to have to improve, are highly motivated to stop school choice. They spend a large chunk of their time and dollars convincing employees, their families, and the public that school choice is harmful.
In Kentucky, it’s been alleged that some school districts were actively campaigning against the amendment and using taxpayer funds to do it, both of which are illegal.
Unfortunately, tyranny of the majority through ballot amendments is likely here to stay. That’s because, as seen with the issue of school choice, direct voting can be successfully weaponized by the left.
So, how can school choice supporters win in the future? They must work harder than their opponents to truly educate people on what school choice is and how much it benefits students and their families.
And not just through scattershot election-year advertising. To be truly effective, the work must start right now. It requires pounding the pavement, talking to as many people as possible, whether online, in small groups, and one-on-one, and personalizing the issue so that parents and community members truly understand that school choice is the only way that American education will improve.
Because the reality is that school choice puts power back in the hands of the people and gives every child, no matter how much their parents make, the opportunity to attend a quality school and get the kind of individualized education that they need and deserve to thrive.
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