Rossi, Gregoire offer ed positions

Washington gubernatorial candidates Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi shared their ideas for shaping up the state’s K-12 education system with hundreds of school administrators Tuesday.

The two candidates attended the annual summer conference of the Association of Washington School Principals and the Washington Association of School Administrators held at the Spokane Convention Center.

The conference typically draws about 600 superintendents, administrators, school principals and assistant principals from throughout the state.

King County Executive Ron Sims, another Democratic candidate, was also invited to the forum, but his office did not return calls, an official told the audience.

Rossi talked about the education issues he’s supported as a Republican senator, including salary raises for beginning teachers and raises for classified employees.

As governor, he said he’d call for an amendment to the state constitution for guaranteed inflationary increases for K-12 spending. That includes programs and salaries.

“I want predictability and stability” in funding, he said. “We can do that.”

Currently, there is “a disconnect” between the programs funded in the state budget and the results people are looking for, he said.

“Everything we need to be successful is here except the political will and courage,” Rossi said. “The same people have been running the show for 20 years.”

Gregoire, the state’s attorney general, unveiled her plan called “Making the Grade” to improve education and “move Washington in the right direction.”

Among other issues, her plan focuses on lowering the number of high-school dropouts.

“It’s a sad fact that one-third of students will not graduate on time,” she said.

“How can we expect them to have an opportunity for a good-paying job?”

Citing Spokane’s Audubon Elementary School as an example, Gregoire called for more celebration of school successes. Audubon improved its scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning by 58 percentage points in math and 41 percentage points in reading since 1997.

Gregoire wants to make early childhood education a priority, to continue examining the validity of the WASL, and to fully fund Initiative 732, the cost-of-living increase for teachers that voters approved, but which lawmakers suspended last year.

The candidates also spent a bit of time answering audience questions. Each made a point to refer people to their Web sites ( www.Gregoire2004.com and www.dinorossi.com) for more information on how they plan to fix education funding problems and get the economy moving.

For many, the most telling information came in response to a question about charter schools. The Legislature this year passed a law that would allow 45 charter schools to be created over the next six years.

The law is on hold, however, until voters weigh in on a referendum that will be on the November ballot.

Rossi said he voted for charter schools as senator.

“There are 30-some other states doing this, we’re not charting new ground,” he said. “I think we should see how it works.”

Gregoire said she is opposed to charter schools at this point in the state’s history.

“We should invest taxpayer money in public schools,” she said. “The creativity, innovation … whatever would be different with charter schools – why not do that with public schools?”

For people like Hajara Rahim, principal of Van Asselt Elementary School in Seattle, that made all the difference.

“I like both of them. Either one would do a good job – they both have passion,” she said. “But my deciding vote is on charter schools. They take money away from basic education.”