Showdown at the education-reform corral

Monday was no ordinary day of hearings in the state Senate Education Committee.

The chair, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, presided over testimony on Senate Bill 6696, a bill on school accountability needed to make Washington competitive for a $4 billion pot of funding from Uncle Sam.

As one speaker after another testified for and against the measure, it was clear this wasn't the ordinary give and take of a bill expected to pass. This was a showdown on education reform between those saying "go slow" and those saying — in so many words — "get the lead out."

The bill takes on teacher performance, creating an evaluation system that divides teachers into four levels of effectiveness, instead of the current two. Student-performance data will be used. Teachers will get tenure after three years, instead of the current two years. None of this is earth-shaking reform, but rather common sense.

Yet, from my perch watching the happenings on TVW, the bill had the Senate hearing room of education advocates slapping leather.

On one political side sat Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association (WEA). Lindquist didn't come before the committee packing pistols or even a combative mood. No need for such theatrics, Lindquist simply reminded the senators that she controlled an 82,000-teacher union and — left unspoken but understood — an unrivaled political war chest. Guns in the holster.

McAuliffe practically gulped.

Leading the opposition was Nancy Hiteshue, director of public affairs for the Washington Roundtable, which represents business leaders. The legislation moves education reform in the right direction but not fast or far enough, she told the committee.

Compared to the other states also vying for a Race to the Top federal education grant, "we're starting from behind," Hiteshue said.

Two opposing views; rhetorical guns drawn.

There was a sheriff present. Randy Dorn, Superintendent of Public Instruction, is Washington's chief education official. He listed SB 6696 shortcomings, including tepid language on linking student performance with teacher performance and the still too cumbersome process to remove poor teachers.

Dorn also wagged a finger at this state's brick wall on charter schools. He's right. This state's inflexibility on charters will be compared on Race to the Top with other states that allow 5 percent of the poorest performing schools to transform into charters or innovation zones.

But Lindquist and the WEA will walk away from the table and spend the next few years unelecting every Democrat on the committee before they allow charter schools with nonunionized teachers.

To be sure, the education-reform debate isn't a black-and-white portrait of union versus corporate interests. Some of the most poignant testimony for and against SB 6696 came from parents, advocates of minority schoolchildren and those representing school boards.

"Where is the (legislation's) boldness and innovation?" asked Thelma Jackson of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable.

Who will break this impasse? Not Democrats in the Legislature. Courage is reserved this session for mending a canyon-sized budget gap.

Desperate eyes turn then toward that other Washington where U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has a well-earned reputation for bringing home the bacon. Might she use her seat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee to push President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to "rethink" Washington state's application. I mean, what's political muscle if it isn't used? And there are rumors of a third round of Race to the Top funding. But counter that with Obama's announcement this week of a freeze on domestic spending, including education.

I'm not sure where this leaves reform efforts in this state. We can only hope political courage will overtake the desire to duck and cover until the gun smoke clears.

For more information on SB 6696 go to: apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/6696.pdf

Lynne K. Varner's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is lvarner@seattletimes.com.