Dive Brief:

• About 62% of Massachusetts voters cast their ballots against the state’s charter school expansion ballot question in a deeply personal campaign for families both for and against lifting the cap and allowing up to 12 new charter schools to open each year.
• The Republican reports public school parents voting against the question worried raising the cap on charter schools would mean more cuts for their children’s schools as more money flows to charters, and those on the other side were fighting for better school options for their kids.
• Some elected officials have been pushing for years to raise the cap, and with the “no” vote victorious on Tuesday, lawmakers will have to go back to trying to find a legislative compromise.

Dive Insight:

Massachusetts was, in some ways, an unlikely battleground for this charter school fight. It is a state with generally high-performing public schools, which decreases demand for charters. But in lowest-performing urban areas, the push for greater school choice was fierce. And supporters had good data on their side. Elsewhere in the country, charter schools often perform only as good as the neighborhood schools they compete with. Some perform better, some perform worse. In Massachusetts’ urban areas, where the charter school gap was preventing growth, research showed schools performed consistently above average. The state has one of the most careful charter school authorizing models, and it has shut down those that don’t meet expectations.

One issue that did not get raised much throughout the election is the question of whether voters should even be deciding major education policy decisions like this. Is a ballot initiative the right way to go? Especially considering voters are not education experts and do not understand the wide-ranging consequences of a yes or no vote. In 2002, Massachusetts voters approved a ban on bilingual education that advocates have been working for years to overturn through other means. A “no” vote Tuesday at least means experts can take up the case for themselves.