With the 2024 presidential election a year away, voters this week will help shed light on how — or whether — education issues have the potential to inform the agendas of presidential hopefuls.
On the ballot this week are two gubernatorial contests, numerous high profile state board of education elections, and state ballot measures with big implications for education policy to ward off cuts as federal funds dry up and state budgets contract.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the top races and ballot initiatives I am watching closely this week.
Governors Races
During this off-year election cycle, voters in two states – Kentucky and Mississippi – will elect a new governor. In Kentucky, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear is the front-runner in a tight race against current Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Both Beshear and Cameron are prioritizing education issues in their campaign and have debated how much to increase teacher pay, the future of school choice, and how to support learning recovery for all students.
In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Governor Tate Reeves is neck and neck with Democrat Brandon Presley, an elected member of the state’s Public Service Commission. On October 9, the third-party candidate, Gwendolyn Gray, dropped out of the race and endorsed Presley’s gubernatorial bid. Since Gray’s name will remain on the ballot, there is a chance that neither of the two remaining candidates will earn 50 percent of the vote; potentially advancing them to a runoff election on November 28.
What happens in Mississippi is significant because it is one of the few states where voters could potentially see a new cast of characters in the House, Senate, and Governor’s office. In Louisiana, New Jersey and Virginia, voters will also be casting ballots for both House and Senate races which could shake up longstanding party dynamics.
School Board Races
In recent months, local school board races have been drawing national attention. This November, there are school board elections in approximately 9,000 districts across 35 states. These hotly contested races are in many ways the battleground for the “parental rights movement” and focusing on issues such as book bans, critical race theory and transgender student rights. It should be no surprise that the importance of these races has drawn a significant increase in spending from PACs and large funders into what are historically low-dollar campaigns.
I am watching school board races in the following states:
Virginia: Voters in Fairfax County, a suburban community outside of Washington, D.C. that is home to Virginia’s largest school district, will vote on a new slate of school board members. The largely Democratic school board has rejected many of Governor Youngkin’s policies over the last two years, but conservatives are running with the hope of ending the stagnation.
Colorado: This year, three of the seven seats on the Denver Public School board are highly contested. While the election results won’t dramatically shift the overall ideological balance of the board, potential new board members differ on key issues related to school safety, school leadership roles, the growth of charter schools and how to address declining district enrollment.
Ohio: The conservative nonprofit Moms for Liberty, has honed in on central Ohio this election cycle. The organization has endorsed eight candidates across six public school districts whose campaigns are focused on culture-war issues such as curricular decision making and transgender rights.
Pennsylvania: Right outside of Philadelphia, Central Bucks School District–the third largest school district in the state–has received media attention for its school board decisions around parental rights issues. With outside groups spending over $600,000 on Central Bucks’ hyper-partisan school board race, political pundits will be watching the outcomes of this election closely, as it may reflect issues of interest for swing-state Pennsylvania voters in 2024.
Minnesota: There are nearly 200 candidates vying to fill over 100 open school board seats in districts across Minnesota this year, and increased competition has translated to increased campaign costs and the arrival of various special interest PACs in the state. Kirk Schneidawind, Executive Director of the Minnesota School Boards Association, attributes the growth in the number of candidates, in part, to the increased level of community interest in education following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education Ballot Initiatives
A number of state ballot initiatives touch directly on both education policy, and taxing and spending decisions that impact education investment.
Colorado: In 2020, Colorado passed Proposition EE, which leveraged funds from increased state nicotine taxes to provide 4-year-olds with access to free preschool. This year, Colorado voters will consider Proposition II which would allow for additional revenue generated from Proposition EE to go towards continued Universal Preschool efforts. If rejected, the already-collected revenue will be returned and the Colorado Department of Revenue will lower nicotine tax rates by almost 12 percent.
The Bell Policy Center, a Colorado think tank focused on economic mobility, recognizes that the state should identify additional streams of funding to ensure the state’s universal preschool program is sustainable, yet, they argue retaining this additional revenue is an important step towards supporting the program in its early days of implementation.
New York: Constituents will vote on Proposal 1 and decide whether to repeal a constitutionally-mandated debt limitation for small city school districts. Currently, 57 small city school districts across New York can only spend five percent of the value of their taxable property on school-related projects and maintenance. If passed, small city school districts would be able to match their large district counterparts, spending up to ten percent of funds towards eligible projects.
Texas: At the top of the Texas ballot, voters will consider Proposition 2, which would provide property tax relief for child care providers across the state. Following the expiration of COVID-19 relief funds in late September, many child care providers are struggling to remain afloat despite serving a state where almost half of families live in a child care desert. Proposition 2 would give child care facilities a property tax exemption worth at least 50 percent of the facility’s appraised value, relieving burdensome operating financial pressures for many centers serving high-need communities.
Also in Texas, voters will consider Proposition 8, which would approve the use of $1.5 billion to support the state’s broadband infrastructure fund expanding connectivity statewide. This effort would address the needs of an estimated 7 million Texans, including many K-12 and postsecondary education students, who are currently lacking access to broadband internet. Finally, through Proposition 9, Texans will decide whether to provide some retired Texas teachers with cost-of-living raises to their monthly pension checks.
What happens today in voting locations nationwide will inevitably shape education policies for years to come. Results will also give us a peek into the crystal ball, of sorts, for the 2024 election cycle. There is no more important duty as a voting citizen than to have your voice heard – even this year, in state elections, local school board races, or with statewide ballot measures.
Read the full article here