Voters Make The Call On Tough State Education Measures

As millions of Americans filled out their midterm ballots, they had difficult decisions to make about K-12 education policy in their respective states.

For most races, the decision came down to weighing education priorities with minimizing crushing state budget deficits. Results were mixed.

In Oklahoma, a measure to increase education spending failed to gain popular support.

Yahoo's The Upshot reports,

In Oklahoma, only 20 percent of voters supported a measure requiring the state to spend an additional $830 million a year on education in order to match neighboring states' per-pupil spending.

Meanwhile in California, voters sided with business needs over schools, when it came to repealing a tax break, which would have meant increased revenue for education.

According to Education Week,

In cash-strapped California, voters rejected an initiative, backed by the state's largest teachers' union, that would have rolled back recently enacted corporate tax breaks.

In other states, like Florida and Arizona, voters came out in support of education and blocked legislators trying to cut back on spending.

According to The Miami Herald, Floridians "reaffirmed their commitment to small class sizes" by defeating an amendment that would have rolled back legal restrictions on the amount of students per classroom.

Similarly, Arizona voters rejected a proposition that would allow legislators to take funds from an early childhood program to put toward reducing the budget deficit, the Arizona Daily Star reports.