Douglas County, Colorado, has been a testing ground for vouchers. A rightwing group gained control of the board and approved vouchers. The case is now being litigated. The vouchers were ruled unconstitutional by the highest state court, then appealed to the Supreme Court, which sent it back for reconsideration in light of the Trinity Lutheran case, which allowed a Christian School in Missouri to get state funds to pave its playground, but did not rule on tuition.

Last night, a pro-public School, anti-voucher slate won control of the school board, ending its support for vouchers and defeating the Moch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity Group. The winning slate received nearly 60% of the vote. The AFT contributed to the winning slate. It remains to be seen how this election will affect the court case, since the new district board no longer supports vouchers.

“A slate of anti-school voucher candidates won a contentious race Tuesday night for the Douglas County School Board, effectively killing the district’s controversial voucher program and entirely remaking the seven-member board.

“The race, because it revolved around school vouchers, drew plenty of media attention…

“But members of the winning CommUnity Matters slate said they wanted to concentrate on bringing unity to the district and calming down a school board often roiled by controversy.

“It is time to return our attention locally — to the students, teachers and community of all Douglas County public schools — while restoring our attention locally,” said Anthony Graziano. “I look forward to working with my fellow board members in a collaborative and transparent manner…”

“Graziano was a member of the CommUnity Matters slate that included Chris Schor, Kevin Leung and Krista Holtzmann. They see vouchers as an attack on public schools and claim that siphoning off tax dollars from schools hurts more children while benefiting only a few.”

“Graziano said the voucher program has been a “distraction to the district.”

This adds one more to the unbroken string of electoral defeats for vouchers.