Wednesday, February 20, 2008

How About That Simple Majority!

Why was it important? The Seattle PI has the story:

Numerous school levies that would have failed in the past appeared to be passing after Tuesday's elections thanks to a new law that dropped the requirement for 60 percent approval in favor of a simple majority.

In November, Washington voters approved a constitutional amendment lowering the "yes" vote percentage required for approving levies from 60 percent to 50 percent plus one. This was the first election to test the new system.

"Clearly, for many districts, that vote last November has made a huge difference," said Chris Korsmo of the League of Education Voters, which pushed the idea.

In the Yakima Valley, 12 local levy measures all passed, but only about half had 60 percent or more approval.
A big win for the schools in November begets several other wins the following February. How about that?

Update 3/23: The Tacoma News-Tribune on how the Simple Majority helped March elections, too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now that all these levies are passing easier, let's sit back and wait for the heralded improvements in educating the students.

I won't hold my breath. More money has no correlation to student achievement. Otherwise the District of Columbia's students would be the top performers in the nation.