Photo courtesy Stockvault
It’s now been over two weeks since Republicans won the gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey and the GOP comeback officially began, or at least that’s how some perceived it. Old news, I know, I know.
But what wasn’t a big deal in the 24-hour news circuit were two ballot initiatives that could provide some very important lessons, and hope, for the education community.
One of the themes that we’ve seen consistently from the health-care debate on Capitol Hill and stimulus spending is a backlash to “big government” and big deficits. We all hate big deficits. The problem is avoiding big deficits would mean tremendous cuts to K-12 and higher education programs.
On Nov. 3, voters in Maine and Washington state were asked to consider “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” measures that would have limited the future amount of taxes they pay. These measures, already in place in other forms in other states, have been disastrous for education (think about California’s property-tax measure, Proposition 13).
And in the current political climate, where we’re all feeling at least a little more anxious about our personal finances and the national economy, anti-government advocates have rallied that fear and pushed forward with these and other initiatives.
As it turned out, the ballots in Maine and Washington were decisively voted down—60 to 40 percent in Main and 57 to 43 percent in Washington. This happened, in large part, because opponents were able to push back with the message that cuts to education and other programs would be even more disastrous for the economy. Television ads in Maine, for instance, featured educators talking about their classrooms and the cuts they had already bore.
Veteran Washington Post analyst E.J. Dionne wrote about this phenomenon: “Only rarely do those who believe in active government take the argument head-on and insist that many of the things that government does are necessary and yes, good. The media almost never discuss what the sweeping dismantling of public services inherent in the rhetoric of the anti-government movement would mean in practice.”
Despite the defeats, the anti-taxpayer groups have plenty more of these measures in their pockets, and education activists will have much work ahead to combat these measures. But Maine and Washington have shown that they can be overtaken, despite the political climate.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
