On Tuesday, voters in Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado rejected school choice at the ballot box, voting against two pro-school choice state Constitutional Amendments and moving to repeal a school choice law. The defeat of all three measures signals a turning tide for school choice policies. After several years of major legislative and electoral successes—and a night where Republican politicians, who are more likely to support these measures, overperformed—voters themselves seemed resistant to approving individual pro-school choice ballot measures. However, this outcome isn't exactly surprising.
"School choice has never—at least not that I can think of—been approved in a popular vote," says Neal McCluskey, the director of The Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom. "We see polling that typically shows people support school choice if you just sort of present them with, 'hey, we could give you money and then you could use it to go seek the education of your choice.'" But, McCluskey adds, highly motivated public education employees manage to dominate the conversation when it comes to ballot measures.
