Querna Or Bingle Would Be An Asset

Spokane voters can’t complain about lack of variety in their choices for the open school board position - there’s everything from a pastor to a Gypsy leader.

In general the six candidates seem to have the best interest of Spokane school children at heart as they campaign for the seat being vacated by Carol Wendle. Two people, however, stand apart in experience and commitment to education.

Christie Querna and Lonny Bingle earn our endorsement for the school board because of their proven track record as volunteers and concerned citizens. School board is an often thankless position, but one of the community’s most important.

Querna is the most qualified, given her extensive participation in schools from the classroom to the committee room. A homemaker, she dedicates her spare time to bettering education - a cause she calls her passion. She worked as a teacher years ago and now is a tireless classroom volunteer. She also chairs two district committees.

She’s enthusiastic, intelligent and inquisitive. It appears she may also be an independent thinker, an important quality for the school board which in the past has clung to a unified voice at the expense of a thorough, public examination of problems and solutions. Querna’s only fault is she appears to be much like the other members of the mostly South Hill board.

Bingle would bring a different approach. As a North Side resident, he’d add balance to the board. He’s also a pastor. The practice of faith healing in his fundamentalist Christian church may raise some eyebrows, but Bingle promises he has no agenda other than improving education. His record with the Arlington grade school parents group supports his claim.

Bingle says his Christian beliefs will guide how he votes, but he doesn’t voice a radical-right agenda. He isn’t out to eliminate sex education or get prayer in schools; he says values education doesn’t belong in public schools.

Christians and school officials have a certain paranoia about each other, Bingle says, and he promises to bridge the gap.

Both Querna and Bingle are knowledgeable, bright people, and would be an asset to the school board. We would like to see a runoff between the two in November.

, DataTimes MEMO: Editor’s note: Our usual Friday feature, “From Both Sides,” will return next week.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = EDITORIAL, COLUMN, ENDORSEMENT - Our View CREDIT = Anne Windishar/For the editorial board