Education Week - November 14, 2018 - 19

KEY:

ELECTION ROUNDUP
K-12 education was a factor in scores of high-profile races this
midterm election, from contests for governors and U.S. Senate
to state schools superintendents. Voters also faced educationrelated ballot measures touching on issues including funding,
school choice, infrastructure, and governance. Here are some
highlights, with results as of press time late last week.

4 Won

*Incumbent

BALLOT MEASURES
ARIZONA
DEFEATED School Vouchers
Arizona Proposition 305, which would
have expanded educational savings
accounts, failed. ESAs let students use
public dollars for services including
private school tuition.

COLORADO

GOVERNORS' RACES

DEFEATED Taxes for Education

ARIZONA

MINNESOTA

David Garcia (D)
Garcia, an education professor, pledged
to close tax loopholes for corporations,
scrap tax credits for private school
tuition, and potentially impose new taxes
on the wealthy.

4 Tim Walz (D)

4 Doug Ducey (R)*
Ducey, the incumbent governor, promised
to boost educators' salaries by 20 percent
by 2020, but also pledged to cut taxes.

COLORADO

4 Jared Polis (D)
Polis, a congressman, said he would like
to stabilize school funding in Colorado.
Walker Stapleton (R)
Stapleton, the state treasurer, sought to
expand school choice in the state.

FLORIDA (TOO CLOSE TO CALL)
Andrew Gillum (D)
Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor, sought
to strengthen gun laws, raise teachers'
salaries, and provide a $1 billion boost
for public schools.
Ron DeSantis (R)
DeSantis, a congressman, pledged to roll
back some new gun-control measures,
and expand the state's tuition tax credit
program.

ILLINOIS

4 J.D. Pritzker (D)
Democratic billionaire Pritzker ran partly
on a platform to pour more money into
the state's school system.
Bruce Rauner (R)*
Rauner, the incumbent, was attacked
over a years-long battle to replace that
state's school funding formula.

KANSAS

4 Laura Kelly (D)
Kelly, a state senator, favors complying
with the a state supreme court order to
find new money for public schools or see
the schools shut down.

Colorado Amendment 73 went down
to defeat. It would have created a

graduated income tax, increased taxes
on those making more than $150,000,
and boosted the state's corporate tax
rate by 1.37 percent. The money would
have been used to increase financing for
K-12, pre-K and full-day kindergarten.

SOUTH CAROLINA
DEFEATED Elected State Chief
Voters rejected South Carolina
Amendment 1, which would have
required the governor to appoint the
state superintendent of education.
The state's top education official will
continue to be elected by voters.

RHODE ISLAND
APPROVED School Construction
A $250 million bond to rebuild local
public schools won approval as part
of a 10-year plan. Voters will be asked
to approve another $250 million in
2022. The state money, combined with
matching funds from municipalities, is
expected to eventually total more than
$2 billion.

A congressman and former high school
teacher, Walz sought to index future
education budgets to inflation and cut
down on class sizes.

STATE SUPERINTENDENTS

Jeff Johnson (R)
Johnson, a county commissioner, favored
vouchers or tax-credits school choice
options and a "parent trigger" law
letting families force big changes on
low-performing schools.

Kathy Hoffman (D)
Speech pathologist, Peoria, Ariz.,
school district
Frank Riggs (R)
Former congressman, now a charter school executive
California (nonpartisan)

OKLAHOMA

NEW MEXICO

CALIFORNIA (TOO CLOSE TO CALL)

4 Joy Hofmeister (R)*

4 Michelle Lujan Grisham (D)
Lujan Grisham, a congresswoman,
campaigned on getting rid of the state's
A through F grading system, moving
away from the state's tough educatorevaluation system, better pay for
teachers, and expanded pre-K.
Steve Pearce (R)
Pearce, a congressman, proposed getting
rid of the state's performance review
system, but wanted to keep A through
F grades. He backed greatly expanded
school choice.

IDAHO
Cindy Wilson(D)
High school government teacher

ARIZONA (TOO CLOSE TO CALL)

4 Sherri Ybarra (R)*
Former teacher, principal and district administrator

John Cox (D)
Superintendent of Peggs public school district

Marshall Tuck
Former president of Green Dot Public Schools, founding CEO
of nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

Former elementary school teacher

Tony Thurmond
Democratic state legislator, former social worker, local school
board member, and Richmond, Calif., city council member

GEORGIA

Stitt, a businessman, would have
opposed the tax hike the GOP-controlled
legislature approved this year to raise
teacher pay.

WISCONSIN

4 Tony Evers (D)
Evers, endorsed by the state's teachers'
union, had pledged to boost education
spending by more than $1.7 billion.
Scott Walker (R)
Walker made Wisconsin a right-to-work
state, supported school choice, and cut
taxes, leading to cuts to K-12 funding.

Kris Kobach (R)
Kobach, the secretary of state, had said
he would fight that decision and seek to
make even deeper tax cuts.

EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT
Jahana Hayes
Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, won her race as Democratic
nominee for an open U.S. House of Representatives seat, representing
Connecticut's 5th district. Hayes has called for more resources and training for
teachers and opposes arming educators. She will be the first African-American
woman to represent Connecticut in Congress.

Israel Romero (D)
(Withdrew before election)
Former music teacher, assistant principal and state legislator

4 Richard Woods (R)*

WYOMING

4 Jillian Balow (R)*

OKLAHOMA

4 Kevin Stitt (R)

SOUTH CAROLINA

4 Molly Spearman (R)*

Otha Thornton (D)
Military contractor, former president National PTA
Former teacher and principal

Drew Edmondson (D)
Edmondson, a former state attorney
general, campaigned on increasing
education funding and teacher pay.

Larry Huff (I)
State education department director, college professor

Former teacher, Unopposed

U.S. SENATE RACES
ARIZONA (TOO CLOSE TO CALL)
Krysten Sinema (D)
As a congresswoman, Sinema
sponsored a bill to roll back annual
testing in the Every Student Succeeds
Act to just certain grade-spans. She's
supported the DREAM Act, which
would open up a path to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants who came
to the country as children.
Martha McSally (R)
McSally, a congresswoman, wants
stronger border control before she can
support Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals or DACA, an Obama-era
initiative that allowed so-called
"Dreamers" to stay in the country.

FLORIDA (TOO CLOSE TO CALL)
Bill Nelson (D)*
Nelson, the incumbent, touted
his record of pushing for science,
technology, engineering, and math,
or STEM, programs in the Senate.
Rick Scott (R)
Scott, currently Florida's governor, ran
on what he called a record of boosting
academic outcomes in Florida, which
this year was the only state to show
significant improvement in math in

4th and 8th grade and in 8th grade
reading on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress.

MONTANA
Jon Tester (D)*
Tester, a former school board member,
portrayed himself as a staunch
opponent of U.S. Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos and sponsored a bill to
roll back annual testing in ESSA to just
certain grade-spans.

4 Matt Rosendale (R)
Rosendale, the state auditor, had no
education section on his website,
but told local media that he thinks
education decisions are best made at
the local level.

TENNESSEE
Phil Bredesen (D)
As governor from 2003 to 2011,
Bredesen pushed through changes to
the state's teacher-evaluation system,
helped overhaul the school funding
formula and raise charter school cap,
and put in place tougher high school
graduation standards.

and supporting state and local control
of education." She's also supported the
A-plus Act, which would allow states
to opt-out of any federal accountability
requirements.

TEXAS
Beto O'Rourke (D)
O'Rourke voted in favor of the Every
Student Succeeds Act, is staunchly
against public funding for private
schools, and proposed hiking K-12
spending.

4 Ted Cruz (R)*
Cruz pushed through language in
a major tax overhaul bill allowing
parents to use 529 college savings
plans for private K-12 schools.
He's supported eliminating the U.S.
Department of Education and the
Common Core State Standards. He
co-sponsored the A-plus Act. He voted
against a version of ESSA when it
came up in the Senate, but wasn't
around for the final vote on the law.

4 Marsha Blackburn (R)
Blackburn, a congresswoman, has
called for "increasing charter school
options, making home schooling easier,
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Education Week - November 14, 2018

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