School Board leader plans run for House

Fri., March 24, 2006

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com (509) 879-7461

Spokane School Board Chairman Don Barlow will run for the state House of Representatives in Spokane’s 6th Legislative District, calling for the state to spend more on education and get health insurance for more people.

“I would try to get additional funds for education,” said Barlow, a Democrat, who wants to challenge Republican Rep. John Ahern. “We’re down pretty much now to bare bones” for schools.

That could mean a tax increase, perhaps on real estate sales, he said. Tax increases are always difficult, he added, but Spokane voters have traditionally supported their schools with taxes, as they did this month with strong support of the maintenance and operations levies.

The state must also find a way to get all residents covered by health insurance, Barlow said Thursday. It should require the largest companies in the state to provide health care benefits, and offer financial assistance to small- and medium-size companies to offer insurance to their employees.

He thinks all kinds of families should have the same rights, and would support a law requiring same-sex couples and domestic partners to receive the same benefits from an employer that married couples receive.

Barlow, 67, is a licensed mental health counselor who works as a consultant and teacher. He has been on the school board for eight years and this year is serving as the board’s chairman. He’s also a past chairman of the Chase Youth Commission, a member of the Martin Luther King Family Center Board and chairman of the University of Idaho’s College of Education Advisory Council.

This will be Barlow’s second run for a House seat in the district, which extends from northwest Spokane south around the city center to the South Hill and Moran Prairie. Two years ago he ran for an open seat, which Republican John Serben won by about 2,400 votes.

He noted he only raised about $10,000 for that campaign and was outspent about 6-to-1. He expects to raise more money, and have more help, this year.

Ahern has not formally announced a re-election campaign but is expected to run. He had collected nearly $15,000 before the Legislature opened and state law cut off fundraising for the duration of the session.

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