Are voters dissatisfied by the conservative billionaire’s plan for Missouri?

Despite receiving more than $2.3 million from St. Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield, the education reform group Teach Great said Tuesday it will drop its campaign for this fall’s teacher tenure ballot measure.

“It has become clear that now is not the time to further pursue the Teach Great initiative. While we still believe in this measure wholeheartedly and will continue to work to reward and protect good teachers, support struggling teachers and make it easier for schools to hire more great teachers, we will not be moving forward with Amendment 3 this year,” said Kate Casas, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Amendment 3, which asks voters to change the state’s constitution to eliminate teacher tenure and base pay on student grades, will still be on the ballot for voters to consider. Still, Teach Great’s announcement is a major blow to the cause and reveals deep concerns from supporters about the measure’s viability this fall.

The opposition forming, said one strategist working on behalf the Missouri State Teachers Association, is not just from union-friendly Democrats. Polling, this strategist said, indicates some Tea Party conservatives and opponents of Common Core are increasingly concerned that the measure could solidify the state’s adoption of the voluntary set of educational standards.

Casas said Teach Great will is not going away. In the coming months, she said, “we will be focusing on strengthening our grassroots base by talking directly to voters and by hosting a listening tour that will cover every corner of the state eliciting feedback from Missourians from all political persuasions by facilitating inclusive discussions posing the basic question: What can we do to improve our state?”