Schools Superintendent Dorn won’t run for third term

SEATTLE – Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn announced Thursday that he will not seek a third term in office, in part because he expects to be an unpopular guy after the next legislative session.

Dorn says his decision does not mean he is giving up the fight for a fully funded school system in Washington state.

“I think I’ve been tough on the Legislature, but I think I’m going to have to get even tougher, maybe to the point of being brutal,” he said in an interview after announcing his election plans.

Since he was elected in 2008, Dorn has criticized the way the Legislature has paid for education. Dorn said some promising ideas have been proposed in answer to the Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary decision on school funding, but none has come up for a vote.

He also criticized the court for not imposing meaningful sanctions to force the Legislature to improve state spending on education.

“Our students need and deserve vigorous action from adults. But neither the governor, the Legislature nor the court have provided that leadership,” Dorn, 62, said in a statement.

Dorn said he doesn’t know what he will do next, but he plans to continue to advocate for children and watch state officials.

He did not rule out a run for another office and said people have talked to him about running for Congress, which he might have done if his own representative, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, had decided to run for governor.

Dorn said some lawmakers might want to start looking for new jobs themselves, if they don’t plan to fulfill their oath of office and fully commit the state to pay for education as Washington’s constitution requires.

The Legislature needs to find more money for education, fix the state’s heavy reliance on local levies and change the teacher pay system to make it more fair and competitive to get Dorn, and most likely the state Supreme Court, off its back.

The high court is holding the state in contempt because the Legislature has not solved those education funding issues, which are outlined in its McCleary decision. The Legislature is being fined $100,000 a day until lawmakers make more progress toward fully funding basic education. That money is being put in a special education fund while lawmakers negotiate.

Dorn, a former school teacher, said he has spent his entire career fighting for students, and he’s not going to stop now.

Dorn’s wife retired this year from a career as a public school teacher and librarian. Dorn said they hope to spend more time together and do some traveling, but he doesn’t plan to join her in retirement yet.

Before being elected superintendent, Dorn worked for nine years as executive director of the Public School Employees of Washington, the second largest school employees’ union in Washington state. He has also been an elementary and middle school teacher, a principal and a lawmaker.

He helped draft major education-reform legislation during his term in the Legislature that he has had to work under as an elected official, including the law that birthed the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the standardized tests known as the WASL.

As superintendent, he has helped Washington adopt the next generation of standardized tests and education standards, commonly referred to as the Common Core.

He has been a frequent visitor to legislative hearings, advocating for more vigorous teacher evaluations and less testing for kids.