Editorial Page staff
The Seattle Times
With baby boomers in their child-rearing years, education is Topic A this election season. In the unusually spicy race for state superintendent of public instruction, Terry Bergeson is, unequivocally, most qualified to be the state's top educator.
Bergeson boasts an unwavering, 31-year commitment to public education. As former director of the commission implementing education reform, she has worked tirelessly to raise academic achievement in public schools. She has the knowledge and vision to effectively use the bully pulpit of SPI to assure education reform is not derailed by irresponsible fear-mongering.
She is the right person at the right time to assure education reform's higher standards and tests do what they're supposed to: prepare kids for an increasingly sophisticated world.
While Bergeson worked day and night to raise academic achievement, her opponent, Ron Taber, was the sniper on the sidelines. Taber is a wealthy, loose-lipped character who is dumping as much as $600,000 of his own money to buy the job.
What is truly scary is what he would do with the post if voters fail to pay serious attention to this race. Taber is like the children on the old Art Linkletter show: He says the darndest things. But there's nothing cute about some of the zingers that tumble out of his mouth. He told one newspaper reporter, ``I've said that in an ideal society, the state will not be involved in education. Parents will educate their children.'' In his signature inelegant manner, he told The Times editorial board: ``I believe in the right to be ignorant.''
The guy is a power plant of heat who radiates almost no light. Taber says he wants to offer families more school options. Initiative 173, the centerpiece of his campaign for SPI, would allow public money to be used at private schools. This ill-conceived plan would drain money from public schools and hurt kids left behind. Taber is bank-rolling this endeavor, too, in a clear effort to dismantle the state's public-education system.
In sharp contrast, Bergeson has worked to improve public schools from within -- as a teacher, assistant superintendent, reform-minded teachers' union leader and the guru of education reform. Some of the state's most respected education thinkers -- including former Gov. Dan Evans and Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz -- support Bergeson because they know she understands education as well as anyone and will work hard to make it better.
In the weeks ahead, Taber will bash Bergeson's union connections. At some point, vitriolic union-bashing ought to backfire. Teachers unions are made up of teachers. And most parents who have looked their child's teacher in the eye know most of these people work hard. Teachers in cash-starved districts frequently dip into their own pockets for extra supplies. Despite a few bad apples, most teachers dedicate their lives to education because they genuinely care about kids.
The choice for SPI isn't even close this year. Taber is trouble. Bergeson sincerely wants to improve public schools.
