Education-related ballot initiatives

This article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/11/09/massachusetts-charter-schools-georgia-school-takeovers-how-voters-decided-four-key-ballot-questions/) summarizes the four education-related ballot initiatives that were decided on Tuesday. The key one was Prop 2 in MA, which would have allowed the expansion of charter schools, which lost by a wide margin (62%-38%). This was a big disappointment and the unions are crowing – but if anyone lost big on Tuesday, it was them.

 

I fear Trump will be a nightmare for the U.S. (but I hope I'm wrong and he exceeds my very low expectations), but I'm quite certain that he (and the Republican-controlled Congress, Supreme Court, etc.) will be a total nightmare for unions in general (about which I am very unhappy) and, in particular, the teachers unions (about which I have mixed feelings).

 

I am not anti-union – in fact, I think the precipitous decline of unionization in the private sector since ~1970 (from over 30% of the private sector workforce to under 7% today; it's been fairly steady at about 1/3 of the public sector workforce) has been a calamity for the U.S.: a major contributor to job losses, stagnating wages, widening income inequality, etc. – but I am for sure against teachers unions using their power to screw kids – like denying them high-quality charter schools (those in MA are the best in the country).