Newsletter

 

Hey Silent Majority family! Last week we announced a new filing on behalf of Restore Washington and are excited to share that work with you. We have four petitions challenging the Ballot Titles for initiatives that were successful in receiving the signatures to move forward in the legislature. Before we jump in to the details of our first challenge on Initiative 2019, here is a bit of the background on initiatives and referendums in Washington state. 

In 1912, Washington became one of the first states to adopt the initiative and referendum process, with the stated goal of securing the rights of citizens to make and remake their laws, and to provide a check over the decisions of their Legislature. Today, if Washingtonians are dissatisfied with certain laws or feel new laws are needed, they can petition to place proposed legislation on the ballot.

The process is termed INITIATIVE because the electorate can initiate legislation. The electorate can either place a proposition directly on the ballot or it can submit the proposed law to the Legislature at the regular legislative session allowing the elected representatives an opportunity to enact the proposed legislation themselves instead of placing the matter on the ballot.

     The REFERENDUM allows citizens, through the petition process, to refer acts of the Legislature to the ballot before they become law. The referendum also permits the Legislature itself to refer proposed legislation to the electorate for approval or rejection.

     The initiative and referendum processes should guarantee Washington’s electorate the right to legislate. Sponsors of initiative or referendum measures must obtain a substantial number of petition signatures from registered voters in order to certify their measures to the ballot or to the Legislature. Washington’s history has shown the initiative and referendum processes to be effective in protecting the people’s interests. In fact, many of the states most significant laws, such as public disclosure laws, were enacted by this process. 

Ballot sponsors, opponents, and State and local politicians control the wording used on your ballot to describe ballot initiatives that received the sufficient signatures to present to the people for approval through the voting process. Thus, ballot initiatives can be worded in such a way as to confuse and mislead voters, sometimes, intentionally. We know what happens when a ballot title is disputed in an effort to mislead the voters—think about what happened when the other side ran misdirection offers on $30 car tabs and Initiative 1639 (firearms purchases for persons aged 18-21).

Enter SMF: We’ve entered these Ballot Title challenges on behalf of RestoreWA as the Washington Education Association (WEA) opposes the Ballot Titles for the four Initiatives. SMF and RestoreWA believe that the present Ballot titles are clear, concise, and accurate, and we are seeking to stop the WEA’s challenge, which will result in confusion.

 

Initiative Measure No. 2019 concerns scholarships for home-based and private elementary and secondary education. This measure would require the State to provide 75,000 scholarships of $12,000 each on a first-come, first-served basis for elementary and secondary home-schooling or private-school expenses and specify permissible uses and eligibility criteria. Therefore, the people intend to establish a more equitable funding program that empowers families to make choices while providing greater educational equity, enrichment, and achievement. This program will use a system of scholarship money to assure a uniform quality education for all of Washington’s elementary and secondary students. Sponsors believe the title should include the words “equity in education” as that is the name of the initiative and the policy goal it is seeking.

The version proposed by initiative opponents uses words and phrases that do not appear anywhere in the text of the initiative, specifically, by inserting the term “voucher.” The WEA, which opposes the current ballot title, realizes that the voters are likely to agree with this initiative, so they are trying to infuse this neutral title with their own “no campaign” rhetoric that again, appears nowhere within the text of the initiative. Although the sponsors aren’t satisfied with the AG’s version, it is clear the AG did follow their long-standing policy to use words in the initiative to describe the initiative. Opponents did the opposite. 

We received a whistleblower tip (attached below) regarding what opponents to this initiative are saying. That letter from Larry Delaney, President at Washington Education Association, includes a statement:

“Anti-education initiative headed to legislature. Educators are winning for more inclusive education that gives every student the freedom to learn. Our opponents see this, though, and now they’re using ballot initiatives to try to undermine the work we’ve done. They have turned in signatures for six initiatives including one that would allow families the ability to review student medical records and give families the ability to opt their child out of assignments about sexual health or any assignments that infringe on their family’s broadly-defined religious beliefs. Additionally, these same extremists are threatening to run an initiative to create vouchers that divert public education dollars to unaccountable private schools. We’ll be sharing updates on this as we get them.”

We included a link above to Larry’s public Facebook page to allow you to familiarize yourself with Mr. Delaney and his positions on education.

The Ballot Title challenges have been consolidated to be heard on February 27th, 2024 in Thurston County.

SMF is using our resources to engage in this fight as it is important that Washington voters have clear and accurate information regarding each of these initiatives. Our position is to ensure that Initiative2019 and other initiatives are named correctly when put forward to the People.