Oregon: Voters handily defeated a ref erendum that would have granted $2,500 in tax credits to families that choose to send their children to private schools or educate them at home. Opponents charged that vouchers would undermine the public-school system by draining off $95 million for children already attending private schools. Nationally, proponents viewed the Oregon measure as a litmus test for the “parental choice” movement. “The public keeps saying it wants more choice,” says Stanford’s Kirst. “But not one of these propositions has ever passed.” Oregonians also decided to put a cap on school property-tax assessments.
Arizona: Voters turned down a proposal to sharply increase education spending–by $100 for each student every year for a decade.
California: An $800 million school-construction proposal passed, while three other revenue-ralsmg measures were defeated. “With a school population that jumps by 200,000 students a year, at least this will keep us going for a while,” says Bill Honig, state superintendent of public instruction. But, he says, the new proposal will only begin to meet the state’s need for $6 billion in new classrooms. Newly elected Gov. Pete Wilson is committed to improving the system.
Massachusetts: The voters rejected one of the most sweeping antitax measures on any state ballot. In Massachusetts, 40 percent of a school district’s budget comes from state aid. “There’s a kind of conventional wisdom that any time you ask people to lower their taxes they’re going to say yes. The message actually got through to voters that this petition threatened their well-being,” says Marc Landy, a political-science professor at Boston College.
Nebraska: Voters refused to repeal the state’s seven-month-old school-financing law that levies higher state sales and income taxes. The law is meant to close the spending gap between schools in property-rich districts and those in poor districts by imposing spending limits and rollbacks on property taxes.
