With nationwide election results tallied, conservative voters are smiling. Pro-homosexual issues were defeated, and politicians are again reminded that change is in the air.
Even California’s school-voucher initiative, defeated by a 7-to-3 margin, is being considered beneficial by school-choice activists since it attracted so much national attention.
Along with the attention, it is also generating some action. Gov. Pete Wilson, in an effort to turn the education wars into an education solution, has created a panel to recommend school reforms. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown has proposed an “educational summit.” The California Teachers Association, after targeting more than $14 million to oppose the initiative, will create a “bold and comprehensive plan” to improve schools by focusing on issues such as reduced bureaucracy, parental involvement, and safety; president Dell Weber refers to the election outcome as a “wake-up call.”
On the other side, initiative backers across the nation are just as positive. “We’re going to go for November of ’94, and I’m confident that we’re going to be united,” says Alan Bonsteel, spokesman for Yes on 174. His group already has a couple of new initiatives filed with the secretary of state. The new proposals call for mandatory student testing and requirements that private-school teachers be college graduates.
Looking back on the campaign, Sara DiVito Hardman, director of Christian Coalition of California, says, “They bombarded us. It was a media blitz.” Explaining they were outspent at least 10 to 1, she points out that most of the opposition’s money was raised “by assessing the school teachers.”
Across the nation, school-voucher efforts are progressing. In New Jersey, the plans of Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler to offer vouchers to inner-city parents may be strengthened with the election of Republican Gov. Christie Whitman. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Democratic state Rep. Polly Williams already has led a move toward choice, with school vouchers being provided to more than 500 students.
In Pennsylvania, voucher bills giving $700 to kindergarten through eighth-grade students and $1,000 for grades 9 through 12 are waiting in the state legislature.
Also in the works are “charter schools,” an innovation halfway between public education and voucher plans. Offering a limited form of choice within the public system, these schools avoid traditional school regulation by agreeing to be judged on performance; thus, they are free to create their own programs. Presently Minnesota grants charters for three years before review, while California is allowing five years of operation within an existing public-school district before review.
Homosexual ordinances
Voters in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lewiston, Maine, repealed ordinances outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation. Voters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said no when asked if their city council should adopt an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“Voters all over the country are realizing that the homosexual agenda is really about legitimizing what they’re doing,” says Oregon Citizens’ Alliance political director Phillip Ramsdell. “What they want is total acceptance of their behavior.”
Oregon Citizens Alliance is challenging a state legislature vote that prohibits implementation of local antihomosexual rights ordinances. Local elections have resulted in 17 straight wins after a state referendum against homosexual rights lost last fall.
Meanwhile, homosexual-rights leaders are planning boycotts. The American Library Association, the American Historical Association, and the United Church of Christ are among groups looking to cancel meetings in cities where homosexual-rights laws have been repealed.
By Patricia C. Roberts in Sacramento.
