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(Washington, DC. November 7, 2018) The results of the 2018 election cycle will be deeply reviewed and analyzed for days, months and years to come, but the initial results among the states demonstrate that education opportunity is a winning issue. Candidates that embrace policies that empower parents, provide more flexibility for schools and teachers, and foster innovation and opportunity in education overwhelmingly won their gubernatorial elections. Anti-education reform groups failed to measurably impact the states and legislatures that they targeted. This was a rejection of the teachers unions who shut down schools to advance their political agenda. As CER’s recently released analysis of candidates for Governor and state Education Superintendent reveals, winners tended to embrace expanding alternative education options and innovative approaches for students of all backgrounds. According to the analysis of yesterday’s elections, more than half of all elected Governors strongly support real education reform, and a third support some aspect of it. Only 10, or less than a third, are opposed to any substantive changes that would empower parents, and create transformative changes in education. New England governors Charlie Baker and Gina Raimondo handily won their races, as did others who aggressively pushed back on the status quo and embraced 21st century education. New Governors like Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Jared Polis (D-CO) can be expected to fill out an increasingly bi-partisan group of pro-education opportunity governors. The question remaIns whether second term winners (like NY Governor Andrew Cuomo) will – now free from political risks – pursue the right approaches to solving educational malaise and failure. Said CER’s Founder & CEO, Jeanne Allen: “Ensuring excellence in education for every student is a non-partisan endeavor. Yet for years the education establishment, including school boards and teachers unions, have thrown roadblocks in the way of education innovation, and have tried annually to abolish life-saving programs and policies for kids, families and teachers who don’t walk in lock step with them. They failed again to make the case that educational failure is acceptable. #RedforEd is, well, pretty dead. “The state leaders Class of 2018 is on the leading edge of innovation and opportunity in education and preparing a road to the future for all of America’s students. CER congratulates all the winners and will continue our 25-year tradition of working with all office holders who seek new and better ways to prepare our students for success from their earliest days in school to their careers and higher ed pathways.”  Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education. |
