Quoting Organizations Left and Right on California/Michigan Voucher Defeats
Education Policy Institute
"In what was considered a crucial test of the school voucher movement, initiatives in CALIFORNIA and MICHIGAN both went down to defeat. In California, a proposal to give at least $4,000 a year to any student for private school tuition failed by more than 70%. Michigan voters opted about two to one against Proposal 1. The plan would have provided $3,000-$4,000 a year to help students in failing public schools attend private schools and to test teachers in schools accepting vouchers."
--Education Commission of the States, ECS e-Connection (11/8)
"If voters see anything they dislike or about which they are unsure they will vote no. This gives opponents the advantage because they can use scare tactics that, however untrue - like the creation of witches schools, bankrupting the public schools, etc. - will make voters wary and are difficult if not impossible to rebut in advance."
--David Kirkpatrick, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (11/9)
"Voters in Michigan and California soundly defeated voucher initiatives on the ballots this week. Michigan PTA and California PTA were lead players in the coalitions formed in their respective states to oppose this latest attempt to impose a statewide public voucher program....National PTA has consistently opposed all funding schemes that divert public funds to private and religious schools, such as vouchers and tax credits; and despite their defeats in Michigan and California, voucher proponents vow to continue advocacy efforts. Advocates for public education must remain vigilant, and should contact decision makers at the state, local, and national levels to convey PTA's position of public funds for public schools."
--National PTA, This Week in Washington (11/10)
"Two of the most publicly watched state initiatives in Tuesday's election were the tuition voucher proposals in Michigan and California. Both failed by large margins of about 70 to 30 percent, causing education reformers to reconsider their approach and begin looking at other possibilities for providing alternatives to children in America's failing public school system."
--Family Research Council, Ed Facts (11/10)
"The overwhelming defeat of private school tuition vouchers in California and Michigan is the most compelling evidence yet that parents and the public dislike and distrust the idea of public support for private schools."
--Bob Chase, National Education Association president (11/8)
"Major victories in the nation's courts for school choice programs in Florida, Cleveland, Arizona and Milwaukee have created an appropriate barometer to assess the progress of school choice. Legislative measures creating programs like the one in Florida also serve as a more effective means than the ballot for pioneering new school choice programs. Is school choice dead? Not until the thousands of American students now using vouchers stop thriving."
--Washington Times, House Editorial (11/10)
"An ABC News exit poll conducted on Election Day shows little appetite for vouchers as well. When asked what the federal government's priority should be when a public school is failing, an impressive 78 percent of voters said the priority should be to 'fix that school's problems,' while only 16 percent responded that it should 'help parents pay for private school.'"
--American Federation of Teachers, Inside AFT (11/13 issue)
"Despite many expensive and calculated efforts by voucher supporters, the public has never approved a voucher proposal. In fact, it's never even been close. More than a half-dozen times since the 1970s, and no less than five times this decade, voters have soundly rejected voucher experiments. Yesterday, once again, the voters made that abundantly clear. Vouchers are an unproven scheme whose time has never come."
--Anne Bryant, National School Boards Association executive director (11/8)
"More than a third of the population is shouting school vouchers....This is decades of bureaucracy that's been built up. It was unlikely we would be able to vaporize it in one fell swoop."
--Tim Draper, California entrepreneur and sponsor of Prop. 38 (11/8)
"We identified a serious problem in education: There are children in failing schools.... We will continue to stand up for these children until justice is done. Sometimes proposals and ideas like these need time for gestation.... We knew right from the start it would be a tough fight, going straight up against one of the most powerful political machines in Michigan -- the MEA (Michigan Education Association)."
--Dick DeVos, Amway Corporation chairman and sponsor of Prop. 1 (11/8)
"This was the first time an extensive effort was made to lay the groundwork before an initiative was put on the ballot. Any loss is painful because the stakes are so high, but each effort creates the foundation for a stronger effort the next time. After a while, the apologies for the current system's failures will ring hollow."
--Clint Bolick, Institute for Justice litigation director (11/8)
