Chris Reykdal knows the ropes for SPI job

With all the other stuff that's going on around here, the primary election snuck up on me. it caught up with me last week when I got to sit down with Chris Reykdal, a Lacy resident who's running for the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI).

If the Reykdal name is familiar, yes, he hails from Snohomish and is a younger brother, by 16 years, of Vic Reykdal, who taught and coached at Wahkiakum schools from the late 1980's to the early 2000s.

Chris Reykdal also went into education, teaching three years in the 1990s at Mark Morris High School in Longview. He returned to college and picked a master's degree in public administration with a focus on public sector finance. He ended up working for the state Board of Community Colleges, as he put it, "the operations and budget guy." He oversaw day to day operation of the office and administered appropriations to the state's community colleges.

"That's exactly the job of the SPI," he commented.

When the position representing his district in the state legislature became vacant, he campaigned for that office and was elected. In the past six years, he has served on the House Higher Education Committee and four years on the House Finance Committee, and for the past two years, he has been vice-chair of the House Education Committee.

There are a half dozen candidates for the position of SPI; one, like Reykdal, is in the legislature, and two work in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Of course, all want to improve the quality of education in Washington schools, and all have a plan to help the state meet its mandate from the state Supreme Court to fund education fully.

Reykdal would use a variation of a plan described as levy equalization. Straight equalization of levies across the state won't work, he said, because of the differences in property values--school districts with high valuation can raise lots of levy money at low rates while districts with low values don't raise a lot of money even with high values.

Instead, Reykdal said the state isn't using all of its property taxing capacity, and that would be the source of new funds. From there, equalization could be applied to account for the difference between district valuations. This, Reykdal said, will allow districts to get away from using special levies to fund basic education.

"Southwest district legislators will have to force House Democrats into understanding the equity issue," he said.

Reykdal would also support moves to boost career and technical education, modify graduation requirements and fund support classes to make sure all students can get the help they need to graduate; and he would offer programs to provide diverse pathways to academic success. He also favors reducing "excessive standardized testing so that teachers have time to engage students and support their individual needs."

It's technical stuff, but Reykdal knows the language and he knows the ropes. I think he's probably the best qualified candidate for SPI.

Editor's note: One can find a digital copy of the primary election voter's pamphlet on the website of the Washington Secretary of State, www. http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/research/2016-Primary-Voters-Guide.aspx