By Mai Hoang / CascadePBS.org
For current Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, Thursday night’s debate served as a highlight reel of successful initiatives and progress in educating the more than 1 million students attending Washington public schools.
His opponent, Republican David Olson, offered his own assessment of the past eight years, painting Reykdal’s two terms in office as a series of “broken promises” and failures, including tens of thousands of students failing to meet grade-level standards, a mental health crisis, absenteeism and an inability to fund special education fully.
“Simply put, kids can’t afford four more years of Chris Reykdal,” Olson said during the debate at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.
Reykdal, a Democrat, remembered his time in office differently: He noted an increase in students receiving free meals, more schools offering dual-language programs, fewer students in remedial programs for college and kindergarten readiness and more students participating in career and technical education programs.
However, in general, the candidates agreed on several things during Thursday’s debate, organized by the Washington State Debate Coalition, which was founded by the Seattle CityClub in 2016. The Coalition has produced election debates all over the state for both local and statewide races. It is supported by media, education and civic organizations. Cascade PBS is one of the many media partners presenting this program.
Reykdal, first elected in 2016, served three terms in the Legislature and worked as a public school teacher and as an executive at the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges before leading the state’s education department. Republican challenger Olson has served on the Peninsula School District board since 2013, currently as vice president and as president in 2021.
The superintendent of public instruction is the state’s top public education leader, managing school funding, implementing education laws and setting curriculum standards. It is a nonpartisan office.
Here are five things of note in Thursday’s debate:
Candidates agreed the Legislature is not sufficiently funding schools.
Reykdal and Olson agree that the state legislature needs to do what is required to ensure that schools, including special education programs, are fully funded. Reykdal used the debate to push for support of his recent $3 billion budget request, which he says would help the state sufficiently fund schools in the wake of rising costs. He said the state could open itself to a court case, as happened more than a decade ago, if the Legislature doesn’t agree to the funding request. “It’s been the only avenue when basic education is not funded in the past,” he said about the court system.
Olson said that while he agrees with Reykdal that the state needs to fund schools fully, he voiced concern that past efforts to pay for K-12 education following the McCleary court decision were done “in a vacuum” and did not sufficiently integrate feedback from parents, teachers and other stakeholders. “I will make sure we bring the stakeholders together to do it right,” he said.
The candidates’ positions differed slightly when asked whether they would support reducing the 60% supermajority required for local school districts to pass a school construction bond. Olson said he would be open to dropping it to 55%, but felt a simple majority was too far given the large amounts of money being requested of taxpayers.
Reykdal criticized Olson for this, saying even requiring 55% would still negatively impact rural school districts. He felt the standard was too high given that most state taxes and other decisions are passed by a simple majority. “Constitutional democracy is focused on a simple majority,” he said.
Neither candidate supports state-level banning of books.
Reykdal noted there is already a process for parents to challenge a book’s inclusion in a local school library, namely whether it’s appropriate for a given age or grade level. He said the issue in other states is that state superintendents are empowered to implement bans. But despite the push by right-wing groups such as Moms for Liberty, he believes his office should stand for “local control” and not ban books at the state level.
Olson said he does not support banning books and believes doing so would be a slippery slope and set a dangerous precedent.
Both candidates support limiting cell phone use.
Olson noted that his home school district successfully implemented a cell phone policy, though it took some time due to feedback from students, parents and teachers. He believed limiting cell phone use was a crucial step in addressing ongoing mental health issues.
Reykdal also supported policies limiting cell phone use, stating that research shows that students are negatively impacted when they’re used. He said there’s less research to show if removing phones helps with improving learning, but he believes that evidence will come over time. Reykdal emphasized, however, that a cell phone policy needs to be done with additional education on the impact of social media and screens.
Olson tried to differentiate himself on parental rights.
Olson said parents want to be involved with their children on all issues, including decisions on everything from gender identity to academics. He voiced support for an initiative that established a parental bill of rights that included rights to review instructional materials, inspect records, receive certain notifications and opt out of certain activities, like sexual health education.
Olson took issue with Reykdal on a memo his office issued following the initiative’s passage, saying Reykdal told school districts they should ignore the new law’s provisions. Reykdal disputed that assertion, saying that his memo noted that provisions of the bill could conflict with federal law around student privacy protections, and that districts should hold off on creating a bunch of new rules before the courts have time to chime in. His memo mentioned a preliminary injunction passed by a judge in King County Superior Court that asked the state to cease implementation of parts of the parental-rights bill that could conflict with student privacy rights.
Reykdal sought to highlight Olson’s Republican policy positions.
Several times during the debate, Reykdal tried to tie Olson to policy positions associated with the far-right faction of the Republican party.
Namely, he claimed Olson supported an initiative that would repeal the state’s capital gains tax, a crucial funding source for education. Olson denied that assertion and simply said there should be measures to ensure lottery and cannabis tax revenues are used for education as intended.
Reykdal scoffed at that point, saying that if the capital gains tax is repealed, neither alternative source of income could make up the loss of hundreds of millions a year for preschool and K-12 education.
“You want to be the school superintendent. I don’t think the motto should be, ‘More marijuana.’ It’s like JD Vance-weird in my opinion,” Reykdal said, referring to the Republican U.S. vice-presidential candidate and a pejorative term used by Democrats.
He also said Olson spoke publicly against diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs. Olson did not confirm or deny that claim but said he supported having school teachers reflect the student body of the local community. For example, Olson cited Central Washington’s Latino community, saying schools should hire more Spanish-speaking teachers as well as incentivize teachers to learn the language.
Republished with permission. Read the original article.
This story was edited to correct past work information from the current state superintendent, Chris Reykdal. The story incorrectly said he was a union administrator. The story also added that he worked as an executive for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
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