Education election news around the country:

Washington:

Still waiting on the charter school vote. Last I saw it was 50.5 yes, 49.5 no.

Oregon:

From a Parents Across America member in Portland, OR:

In Oregon, we voted down a repeal of an estate tax. We voted to reform our corporate kicker to have those funds go to K-12 when they would normally kick back, mostly to out of state corporations. We kept our current Labor Commissioner who is strong on CTE and restoring such classes and shops to our schools, and we won a Democratic House majority, and while I shouldn’t get my hopes up too soon, I think because of the work we have been doing, these Dems will be more vocal against the Governors awful ed plans. Locally in Portland, the big news is that we passed a major construction bond to finally update our facilities. AND, a local arts initiative passed to secure every K-5 student arts education at least once per week.

Connecticut: defeat for Rhee, Inc.

From the Parents Across America Newsletter:

The big news in Connecticut is the defeat of the charter revision in Bridgeport. The mayor, Bill Finch, supported by Michelle Rhee, her husband, Kevin Johnson, Michael Bloomberg, ConnCAN, business leaders and more pushed a revision to the city charter that would eliminate an elected school board in favor of one appointed by the mayor. Just over a year ago, in July 2011, Mayor Finch, the President of the State Board of Education, ConnCAN and TFA reps engineered an illegal takeover of Bridgeport’s BOE, which was overturned by the Connecticut Supreme Court. So, Mayor Finch and his allies aimed their efforts at disenfranchising Bridgeport parents through a revision of the city charter.

PAA-CT member and retired Judge Carmen Lopez, who was instrumental in the lawsuit challenging the illegal board takeover, worked tirelessly to educate the public about the implications of an appointed board. She wrote op-eds, and spoke at gatherings all over the city. BOE members Maria Pereira (also a PAA_CT member) and John Bagley also spoke out. Jonathan Pelto exposed the questionable campaign activities of Rhee and others.

In a surprise David vs. Goliath victory for democracy, the charter revision was defeated by a vote (unofficial) of 11,121 to 9,231.

Florida

From Scathing Purple Musings:

Floridians didn’t buy the religious freedom nonsense and defeated Bush’s Amendment 8. Voters saw that it was just another back-channel attempt to legalize vouchers. Nearly 1 million Floridians voted against the measure, clearly showing that republican and independent voters didn’t want it...

More at the link:

http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/