Published: January 1, 1994

Current Events: In Brief

Californians Say No To Vouchers

In a stinging setback for advocates of private school choice, California voters in November rejected the nation's most ambitious school voucher initiative yet by a seven-to-three margin. Proposition 174 would have given parents a tax-funded voucher-- worth about $2,500 per child in 1994-95--to spend at any participating public, private, or parochial school.

The overwhelming defeat marked the third straight loss for voucher proponents at the polls. Voucher referendums were defeated in Colorado in 1992 and in Oregon in 1990, both by two-toone margins. Many national education groups seized on the overwhelming rejection of the California initiative as a referendum on the future of...