WASL Watch: The Superintendent's Race

The Washington Education Association has stepped up its effort to make sure that 12-year incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson is not reelected. The AP picked up a memo to locals instructing them to pass votes of no confidence and making it easy for them with sample statements - Vancouver teachers and 34 others have already done so.

WEA is determined to get Bergeson out of office. But nobody else really wants the job. From the AP story:

Rich Semler, who has the WEA’s endorsement, said he’s never had any aspirations for elected office. He was ready to retire as superintendent of the Richland (Benton County) School District and didn’t need a new job.

Randy Dorn, who briefly entered the race for superintendent in 1996 but dropped out when Bergeson decided to run, said he put off announcing this time because he was hoping someone else would step forward. Even though he didn’t get the WEA’s endorsement, he said the union has encouraged him to stay in the race.

And why not? The WASL has become the primary campaign issue thanks to the WEA and plenty of parental angst, but the Superintendent’s Office has lots of other things to worry about.

Who wouldn’t want to work with 295 school districts towards vague goals like “better teachers” and “more effective schools” under the constant criticism of the press, parents, 81,000 WEA members and 27,000 PSE members. Add to that federal requirements about which kids to leave behind, diminishing federal funding and an inability to raise local funding, inconsistent state funding and funding inconsistencies across the state. There’s also a Governor who will take credit for everything good that happens in education but blame the Superintendent for anything bad that happens, plus a constant lawsuit over whether the state is meeting its constitutionally "paramount duty" of providing a basic education, and a constant battle over what, exactly, "basic education" means.

Here’s a WASL question for you: if the competence of the candidate is inversely proportional to the confidence of the constituency, how much money will it take to finally get good schools?

Really, who wouldn’t want this job.