Educators Turn To Business Community For Reform Help Association Asked To Oppose Education Initiatives

Sat., June 1, 1996

Carla K. Johnson Staff writer

The three people complaining about government regulations at a business breakfast Friday were not corporate executives.

They were public school administrators.

“I would like to throw the regulations on the floor and stomp on them,” said Walla Walla School District Superintendent Ellen Wolf. “It’s become regulation by paralysis.”

In an election year that could bring big changes for public schools, the superintendents looked for support at the Association of Washington Business board meeting at the downtown Red Lion Hotel.

Wolf was joined by Everett Superintendent Jane Hammond and Spokane Superintendent Gary Livingston.

The association, a key player in the legislative dismantling of the state’s 1993 health care law, recently decided to support the education reform efforts set in motion by a law passed the same year.

The group will decide in September whether to take a stand on two initiatives on the November ballot that aim to inject private-sector competition into public schools.

“This is new ground for us,” said Don Brunell, association president. “We want to make sure we’re well informed before we make decisions.”

The association represents 3,500 Washington companies that employ 600,000 people.

Initiative 173 would give parents tax money to send their children to private schools. Initiative 177 would allow teachers and parents to use tax money to open schools exempt from most regulations.

The superintendents told about 50 business leaders at the Friday breakfast meeting they oppose the initiatives because they would rob public schools of limited money, leaving some students in a weakened school system.

They agreed the initiatives have added urgency to the need to reform schools.

“In education, too often when the horse we’re riding dies we don’t get off,” Hammond said. “We buy a new bridle and saddle. We visit school districts that ride dead horses more efficiently.”

The superintendents told the business leaders how they can help education.

“Get in schools. Be supportive. Be a partner,” Livingston said.

, DataTimes

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