Incoming state education chief says taxes are the answer

OLYMPIA — The state's incoming superintendent of public instruction says Washington lawmakers are about to get a wake-up call about what it means to do their work during an economic downturn.

Randy Dorn predicts the Legislature will be forced to think about raising taxes to meet the needs of the state, especially because he says cutting one of Washington's biggest dollar commitments — education — should not be on the table.

As a former state lawmaker, the new schools chief knows few things may be sacred during a major economic downturn.

Some may say it's a little too early for Dorn to mention the idea of raising taxes to help bankroll education, but it does make an interesting diversion away from another possibility: cutting the education budget.

In an interview Wednesday, Dorn was quick to point out that the state constitution says education is the paramount duty of the government. He thinks that should take the K-12 budget off the cutting block entirely, but he knows how lawmakers work during a tough budget cycle.

Dorn was anticipating Gov. Christine Gregoire's upcoming budget proposal, which is expected sometime in the next two weeks.

The governor has promised to balance the budget without raising taxes, so this first take on the state budget for the 2009-11 biennium will call for dramatic cuts in spending to make up for an expected deficit of more than $5 billion.

Dorn said he hasn't had a chance to sit down and chat with the governor since he defeated 12-year incumbent Terry Bergeson. But he believes there aren't many options.

"We're going to see a real balanced budget and we'll see some — not major cuts — dramatic cuts," Dorn said.

He thinks most lawmakers can't really picture what a $5 billion deficit looks like, but they'll get a much better idea when they see the governor's budget and start hearing from citizens about what program cuts would hurt them.

"It'll be a real choice of, what are the priorities. And to me there isn't a choice on what is a priority. The priority's already been determined by our constitution. That's the paramount duty. They take an oath of office. It's pretty simple to me," Dorn said. "I don't get to push the button on budgets but I sure can try to influence."

About 40 percent of the state's general fund goes to education. In each two-year budget cycle, about $15 billion goes toward the education of Washington's 1 million school children in kindergarten through 12th grade. Washington ranks 42nd in the nation in the amount of money per child the state spends in the classroom, according to federal statistics.

Dorn said that since nearly every state is facing a budget deficit, if Washington simply leaves education spending where it is, the state could move up in the rankings.

He has new ideas for spending state dollars, along with some plans for saving money, but for now he seems most focused on avoiding budget cuts and on keeping his campaign promise to get rid of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Dorn said the WASL would be his top priority when he takes office in January. He's not sure what the state will do instead of the time-consuming and expensive test, but he has some ideas he's picked up while talking to educators around the state and to government officials elsewhere.

"Everything is on the table," Dorn said.

The state could replace the WASL with multiple-choice diagnostic tests some Washington schools and other states are already using to keep track of student progress. High-school students could take a standardized test such as the ACT to gauge what they have learned instead of the WASL, as Colorado uses for its high-school assessment.

He wants the statewide assessment to be a tool that teachers and parents can use to help the state's children learn, and Dorn thinks a spring test that takes as much as two weeks to administer and four months to score is not a useful device.

Dorn said he'd like to wave a magic wand and make the WASL go away, but it will take a lot more time and effort.

He said he needs to better understand the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, for which Washington uses the WASL to show that kids are making adequate yearly progress. And he will consult with the State Board of Education and state lawmakers, but Dorn points out that their involvement is not technically required.

The Washington law that called for statewide tests to keep track of student progress toward high standards gave the superintendent of public instruction responsibility for the test, not the Legislature, Dorn said. He pointed out that Bergeson trimmed the size of the WASL for grades three through eight without consulting with lawmakers.

Lawmakers have been involved in other, more controversial revisions of the WASL, such as the delay of the math test as a graduation requirement. Eliminating the WASL in its entirety is unlikely to pass by without legislative comment, although the WASL doesn't have a lot of fans among lawmakers.

In addition to his work on the WASL, Dorn said his other top priorities include reviewing department staff, looking for ways to improve high-school graduation and revisiting the math standards revisions, which Bergeson's staff recently completed with the help of outside consultants.

He also spoke about the need to make sure Washington's students are given hands-on ways to learn subjects such as math and science and the need for the state to continue to support arts education and extracurricular activities that help young people grow up to be creative, well-rounded adults.