The Clark County Education Association, the union representing most of Southern Nevada's teachers, has announced it is throwing its weight behind the proposed Energy Choice Initiative on the 2018 ballot.

In an email sent Monday, the union's executive board said it had decided to endorse the measure, which will appear as Question 3 in November, because it believed the initiative would lead to lower consumer electric prices for residents and the school district.

The union also cited an unrealized proposal from earlier this year to take the school district out of the service territory of NV Energy and into a long term contract with a third-party power provider, with promised savings of millions of dollars.

"We believe NV Energy has leveraged their monopoly power to overcharge the Clark County School District by millions of dollars every year, whereas a good corporate partner would use their influence to assist the District in times of financial strain," it said in a statement.

If approved, the ballot measure would require Nevada switch from a monopoly-model electric system to a competitive, retail electric market by 2023. The measure is a constitutional amendment and requires two subsequent affirmative votes to take effect, passing 72 percent to 28 percent in 2016.

CCEA's decision to endorse puts it apart from several other unions, including the Nevada AFL-CIO, SEIU Nevada Local 1107 and the Southern Nevada Central Labor Council, which have endorsed the opposition group Coalition to Defeat Question 3.

Disclosure: NV Energy has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.