BOSTON – School choice took a blow in Massachusetts on election night as voters rejected a ballot measure that would have expanded the number of charter schools allowed in the state.

About 62 percent of Massachusetts voters rejected Question 2 during Tuesday night’s historic election, killing the proposal to authorize up to 12 new charter schools in the state each year, the Boston Globe report.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

The results served a blow to Gov. Charlie Baker and school choice proponents who sought to expand quality educational options for Massachusetts families, and a win for teachers unions and entrenched education special interests who aimed to maintain a monopoly on educating the state’s youth.

“I am proud to have joined with thousands of parents, teachers and education reformers in a worthwhile campaign to provide more education choices for students stuck in struggling school district, and while Question 2 was not successful, the importance of that goal is unchanged,” Baker said in a prepared statement late on election night.

According to the Globe:

Charter schools are controversial, in part, because they have a freer hand with budgets, curriculum, and hiring than traditional public schools and are typically not unionized.

The ballot measure would have allowed for 12 new or expanded charters per year, adding significantly to the existing stock of 78 charters statewide.

But voter rejection has stalled the charter movement, which is bumping up against state-imposed caps in Boston, Springfield, and other major urban centers.

The campaigns centered on the ballot measure spent a total of $40 million to sway voters, with donors to the “Yes on 2” campaign outspending their opponents by about $24.2 million to $14.5 million. Nearly all of the money spent to kill the proposal came from teachers unions, the news site reports.

Teachers and others who support the union monopoly on public schools celebrated Question 2’s defeat in Boston as the results rolled in Tuesday night, CBS Boston reports.

“It’s a great victory,” teacher Zina Link said. “It’s a victory for the students. It’s a victory for education. It’s a victor for the possibility of turning schools around rather than abandoning them.”

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Union officials claimed the question’s defeat represented a “true grass-roots movement” despite the obvious union dominated spending.

“We have done an amazing job of building a coalition, building a true grass-roots movement,” Massachusetts Teachers Association boss Barbara Madeloni said.

She insisted the election results mean “there should be no conversation about expanding charters” until lawmakers “fully fund our public schools,” the Globe reports.

Parents who want the best education possible for their children, on the other hand, were deeply disappointed by the outcome.

Boston parent Rose Leblanc told MassLive she believes that charter schools are “giving kids who never had an opportunity, who are in failing public school systems, a chance to have the opportunity.”

Leblanc, who is homeschooling her 6-year-old son while on a charter school waiting list, said the growing number of Massachusetts parents frustrated with the public school system is obvious.

“Because there’s so many people that want their kids in a safe, better school, with a better curriculum, smaller class sizes … the waiting list is so long,” she said.