In 2018, 36 gubernatorial contests will take place — potentially reshaping education in the states as we know it.
The national conversation around education has been loud, polarized, and focused on issues such as school choice, teacher’s union strikes, and free speech. Yet, the majority of education policy-making is a power reserved for the states, a fact that gives governors and state legislatures immense power at the local level.
A survey of the 269 declared gubernatorial candidates by American Enterprise Institute scholars Frederick Hess and Sofia Gallo revealed that state priorities in education have changed markedly from just four years ago.
Past hot topics such as school accountability, teacher evaluation, and Common Core were hardly mentioned in the survey of websites.
The only educational issue supported by a bipartisan majority was career and technical education or CTE. More than 60 candidates, including 40 Democrats and 24 Republicans, stated their commitment to expanding CTE on their websites.
Interestingly, there was less attention paid overall to school choice, despite more chatter at the national level, and a strong partisan divide on this issue remains. Only 16 Republicans and 17 Democrats mention charter schools, with all of the Republicans viewing it positively and two-thirds of Democrats viewing it negatively. Moreover, all 14 Democrats who mention vouchers portray them negatively, despite the strong concentration of Democratic voters in inner-city districts with parents clamoring for voucher programs.
It is also crucial to pay attention to those priorities left out, according to researchers. Notably, only 12 candidates mentioned anything about college affordability and only one addressed the issue of free speech on campus, despite the prevalence of speech controversies on state-supported college and university campuses.
With roughly one-third of total state expenditures each year dedicated to funding K-12 education and colleges, a closer look at gubernatorial priorities gives a good indication of how this money might be spent.
