Unions Scored at the Ballot Box

Voters thumbs-downed accountability and reforms in several states

No state has ushered in more education changes over the past four years than Indiana. The Hoosier State instituted an A to F grading system for schools, linked teacher evaluations to student performance, scaled back teacher tenure and created one of the nation's broadest private school voucher programs.

Those changes attracted national attention for the state's Republican superintendent of public instruction, Tony Bennett, and more than $1.3 million in donations for his re-election campaign this year. But on Tuesday voters delivered a surprising and decisive victory to his Democratic challenger Glenda Ritz, who had vowed to move away from what she described as the state's "pass-fail approach" to evaluating students and schools and had won the support of the state's teachers union.