While it was very close to a clean sweep with almost every county rejecting every ballot measure to increase taxes rather than reduce spending; three counties, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz, did approve proposition 1B by a narrow margin. This proposition would have given the schools $9 billion in additional funding but would have only been enacted if proposition 1A passed. I’m suprised that voters in more counties did not approve this measure while rejecting the other measures, reading it as strictly more money for schools.
In other election news, the entire Groveland School board was recalled.
Voters in a small rural school district near Yosemite National Park voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to oust all five board members, according to unofficial returns, the first time in memory that an entire school board has been unseated.
“The community has given us a mandate,” said Gloria Marler, who won a seat on the board of the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District. “I believe that mandate is to restore trust, restore integrity, be held accountable for our actions, follow the law and be completely transparent.”
The community ousted the school board for not reinstating a popular math teacher, who was accussed of plagiarism in a course at California State University Fresno and then later cleared of the charges. I’m suprised he was dismissed, since the Los Angeles Times has reported that only 33 teachers have been fired in California in the last five years.