Ten states to decide education-related measures this November

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Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to the Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, Brew. 

By: Ethan Rice

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. Ten states to decide education-related measures this November 
  2. 50 states in 25 days—Arizona and New Mexico
  3. Sixty-six elections decided by 10 votes or fewer across the United States last year

Ten states to decide education-related measures this November

This November, voters in 10 states will decide 11 statewide education-related ballot measures—the most since 2018. 

In 2000 and again in 2006, voters decided on 26 education measures—the most in this century. Click here to explore the full list of education-related measures going back to 1974. 

Below is a list of education measures to watch in Colorado, Florida, and Massachusetts that deal with private school choice, partisan school board elections, and standardized testing. 

Colorado’s Amendment 80

Colorado’s Amendment 80 would amend the state constitution to establish that “each K-12 child has the right to school choice,” and defines school choice to include neighborhood schools, charter schools, private schools, homeschools, open enrollment options, and future innovations in education.

Colorado is one of 17 states without private school choice options allowing families to use taxpayer funding for private educational expenses. Twelve states with Democratic trifectas, including Colorado, do not have private school choice options. Only four states with Republican trifectas—Idaho, North Dakota, and Texas—do not have private school choice policies. 

Colorado’s 1994 Public Schools of Choice law allows students to attend any public school (including neighborhood schools, charter schools, and some online schools) for free, even if they do not live in the school district.

Advance Colorado Action President Michael Fields, who proposed Amendment 80, said, “We’ve had broad bipartisan support of school choice for decades here, but I feel like that might not be the case in the future. We’ve seen legislation this year going after charter schools. I think that will continue in the future from some legislators. This is strictly locking in what we already have in place. I just think that parents should be in charge of education.”

Colorado Education Association President Kevin Vick said, “They’re using the innocuous word of ‘choice’ as a vehicle for what opens the door clearly for a voucher scheme. There’s no other reason to include private schools in [the initiative] unless that is their ultimate intent. … We’re definitely concerned about the implications of this ballot measure.

School Choice for Every Child registered as a political action committee (PAC) to support the ballot initiative but has not yet reported any financial activity. The group Public Schools Strong registered as a political action committee (PAC) to oppose the ballot initiative. The committee raised $751,247.

Florida’s Amendment 1

Florida’s Amendment 1 would make school board elections partisan beginning in 2026. Candidates would be nominated for the general election in partisan primaries and appear on the ballot with partisan labels, such as Democrat or Republican. The Florida Constitution requires school board elections to be nonpartisan, meaning that partisan labels do not appear on the ballot next to a candidate’s name.

Florida’s school board elections were partisan until 1998, when voters approved Amendment 11 64% to 36%. Florida is one of 41 states that hold nonpartisan school board elections. If Floridians approve Amendment 1, the state will join Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, which hold partisan school board elections. In Rhode Island, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, the law allows for partisan or nonpartisan school board elections depending on the district.

State Rep. Spencer Roach (R), who sponsored the amendment, said, “This is not about, at least for me, advancing the cause of one political party over another. But for me it’s about transparency, and I simply believe that we have an obligation to give voters as much information about a candidate as possible, and let them make a decision about vetting a candidate.”

Alachua County Public Schools Board Chair Tina Certain said, “It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, and I think everyone should get to vote and have a voice on a candidate, not just based on your political registration during the time of the election. We’re seeing more politicization in education because of the governor of Florida’s actions.

No campaign committees have registered to support or oppose the measure.

Massachusetts Question 2

Massachusetts Question 2 would repeal the requirement that students must achieve a certain competency level on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam to graduate high school. The initiative would require that students participate in the assessment program without achieving a certain competency level and complete all local or district graduation requirements (number of class credits, satisfactory grades, and regular attendance). 

Eight states required students to pass a statewide assessment to graduate high school in 2023, according to Fair Test: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an organization that opposes standardized testing requirements. Those states are Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. 

Twenty-six states have assessment requirements for graduation such as a civics assessment, ACT/SAT, college and career readiness assessment, and/or end-of-course exams for certain subjects. Sixteen states have no assessment requirements for graduates.

Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) President Max Page said, “Massachusetts residents are ready to join the vast majority of states that have scrapped the use of standardized tests as a graduation requirement and instead use authentic, educator-designed assessments of student skills.”

The Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education issued a statement saying, “Importantly, we know from Brown University research that ‘high school MCAS scores predict long-term success and appear to reflect students’ academic skills,’ not simply socio-economic status or school characteristics …. We can’t eliminate gaps in achievement and equity if we strip ourselves of the tools to measure them.”

One committee registered in support of Question 2—Committee for High Standards Not High Stakes. It has raised $3.4 million. Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2 registered in opposition and has raised $1 million.

Want more of the latest developments in school board politics? With Ballotpedia’s Hall Pass, you can stay connected to the conversations driving school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

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50 states in 25 days—Arizona and New Mexico

Continuing our 50 states in 25 days coverage, today, we will look at what’s on the ballot in Arizona and New Mexico. Yesterday, we gave our readers a look at what voters in Ohio and Nebraska can expect to see on their ballots. With 18 business days between now and the final Friday before the election, let’s continue looking into what’s on the ballot across the nation. 

Arizona

Let’s start with a look at some key dates and deadlines in Arizona.

  • The deadline for registering in person, by mail, and online is Oct. 7. The deadline for in-mail registration is a receipt deadline. Early voting began Oct. 9 and ends Nov. 1.
  • All polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Everyone in line when the polls close must be allowed to vote. Voters can find polling locations here. 

Here’s what is on the ballot: 

  • Voters will elect one U.S. Senator and nine U.S. Representatives. Two U.S. House seats—the 3rd and 8th Congressional Districts—are open because the incumbents did not run for re-election.
  • Three of five seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission are up for election. The Commission is Arizona’s state regulatory body for non-municipal utility companies, including energy, heat, trash, water, and communications firms.
  • All 60 state House seats and all 30 state Senate seats are up for election. There are 15 open seats in the state House and five open seats in the state Senate.
  • Two seats on the Arizona Supreme Court and four seats on the Arizona Court of Appeals are up for election.
  • Seats on 42 Arizona school boards are up for election. These school boards are among the 200 in Ballotpedia’s coverage of school board elections.
  • Six cities and two counties within Ballotpedia’s coverage scope will hold municipal elections. These are among the 80 counties and 82 cities in Ballotpedia’s coverage of municipal elections.
  • The cities of Page and Cottonwood will hold recall elections for city council members.
  • Thirteen ballot measures—five legislatively referred state statutes, six legislatively referred constitutional amendments, and two citizen initiatives—have been certified for the November ballot. 
  • One of these measures, Arizona Proposition 140, was challenged in Maricopa County Superior Court, with plaintiffs arguing that the campaign supporting the measure did not submit enough valid signatures for it to appear on the ballot. The Arizona Supreme Court issued an order on Oct. 4 dismissing the challenge. 
  • Local ballot measures will be on the ballot in Maricopa and Pima Counties. Ballotpedia is covering local ballot measures that appear on the ballot for voters within the 100 largest cities in the U.S.

New Mexico

Next, let’s check out New Mexico’s elections. We’ll start with some key dates and deadlines.

  • The deadline for registering in person, by mail, and online is Oct 8. The deadline for in-mail registration is a receipt deadline. Early voting began Oct. 8 and ends Nov. 2.
  • All polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Everyone in line when the polls close must be allowed to vote. Voters can find polling locations here. 

Here’s what is on the ballot:

Want to learn more about the elections you’ll be voting in this year? Click here to use our Sample Ballot Lookup tool!

Make sure to check our hub page, linked below, for future installments of the series.

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Sixty-five elections decided by 10 votes or fewer across the United States this year

Every year, Ballotpedia covers thousands of elections at all levels of government—from the halls of Congress to school boards in all parts of the country. While there are plenty of elections where a candidate wins big, some are decided by a dozen or fewer votes. 

Sixty-five elections nationwide have been decided by 10 votes or fewer so far this year. Thirty-nine of those were decided by five votes or fewer. Democrats won 24 of these elections, Republicans won 29, and nonpartisan or minor party candidates won 12. There were 21 elections decided by 10 votes or fewer in 2023 and 111 in 2022.

The race decided by 10 or fewer votes with the most votes cast was in Orange County, Florida. Nicole Wilson won a nonpartisan election to represent District 1 on the county commission over Austin Arthur by two votes out of 28,122 cast. The race with the fewest votes cast was the Libertarian primary for New Mexico House District 43, where Chris Luchini defeated Phillip Mach by five votes out of 31 cast.

Since 2018, 629 elections have been decided by 10 or fewer votes. Of those 629 elections, 372 were determined by fewer than five votes, including 91 decided by a single vote. Members of the Democratic Party won 129 elections decided by 10 or fewer votes, Republicans won 157, and nonpartisan or minor party candidates won 343.

Two hundred eighty-three of these were federal or state-level elections. Among these elections, the race with the fewest total votes was the 2020 Libertarian primary for Montana State Senate District 45, when Nolen Skime (L) defeated Terry Lucke (L) by two votes out of 20 total cast.The race with the most votes cast was the 2020 general election of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, when Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) defeated Rita Hart (D) by six votes out of 393,922 total cast.

The remaining 346 elections were at the local level. The race with the fewest total votes was the 2022 election for Wilson Elementary School District in Arizona, which was decided by 14 votes. Maria Felix beat incumbent Hector Banda Lopez eight votes to six. The race with the most votes cast was the 2020 Democratic primary for Travis County Court at Law No. 4, when Dimple Malhotra (D) defeated Margaret Chen Kercher (D) by four votes out of 129,420 cast.

North Carolina has the most elections decided by fewer than 10 votes, with 273. Ballotpedia covered every election in North Carolina in 2019, resulting in a larger number of close elections identified. All other figures in this report come from Ballotpedia’s regular coverage scope. The next highest states are New Hampshire (104), Vermont (37), and Texas and Utah (tied with 19 each).

Click here for more on elections decided by 10 or fewer votes since 2024, along with a breakdown by state, vote margin, and political party.

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