Pointing to statistics from the Washington Policy Center's Report Card for Washington's Future showing student spending is up per pupil from $13,775 to $19,163, while student test scores show decline with “about 60 percent not on track for college level learning in math and 50 percent when it comes to English,” FOX Q13 reporter Hana Kim asked Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Chief Chris Reykdal, “What should districts be doing differently that maybe they haven't tried before, what is your guidance on this to maybe turn things around?”
Reykdal's answer was to deny a problem and change the subject.
He tried to change the topic from what the data says to who cited the data, the Washington Police Center (WPC).
In an effort to cast doubt on the statistics he asserted WPC is a "partisan organization."
Nevermind that WPC is devoted to policy not partisanship, committed to policy, not candidates, and has given our highest award to Democrats, invited Democrats to be our keynote speakers at our annual dinner events and featured the former Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States as one of our keynote speakers.
Set all that to the side and then consider that Reykdal himself is a partisan. He served as a partisan legislator and acknowledged being "the Democrat" in the 2020 race for superintendent of public Instruction. Watch the video at https://tinyurl.com/49rtkpne and scroll down to the video of a split screen between former Gov. Jay Inslee and Reykdal at a campaign event, and watch how Reykdal smiles and nods his head as then-governor Inslee defines him as "the Democrat" in the race.
So a partisan OSPI chief warned against heeding data from a “partisan” group. But even if you take Reykdal at face value and decide not to trust the Washington Policy Center at all, you are still stuck with a major problem.
It's not WPC data we're citing.
We're citing state data from OSPI.
From the interview:
Reykdal: “Well, our districts are working really hard and actually they are doing a great job, and so when we say ‘not college or university ready,’ that means three quarters of our kids are absolutely on grade band so we've got to do some work on that other 25 percent for sure, and we have less money today adjusted for inflation per kid than we did six years ago, so the battle of the stats kind of goes on, but what I would say to everybody is there is a reason we're such a successful economy — it's public ed. Ninety percent of kids go to public ed. Uh, we've got these great programs that allow them to go lots of directions, universities, college, military, technical — so we've got really great educators, great school districts, and there is always work to do, especially when there's more poverty than we have ever had and more mental health than we've ever had, more mental health needs, so it's a constant battle, so the Policy Center is a very partisan, ideological group, so they have one perspective, and then there's national data that suggests very few states are statistically outperforming Washington."
Reporter: “I mean that is partisan for sure, but those numbers are accurate though, right?”
Reykdal: “Well, no, cause they say those kids aren't on grade band, and the real fact is what percentage of kids are at grade level, which is about three quarters, and then how many are ready to go to a university without needing remediation in math or writing by the time they are 15 or 16 years old, and we get to almost 50 percent of those kids, so as a relative perform (sic) in the country, we do awfully well, but there is always work to be done."
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David Boze is the communications and strategy director for the Washington Policy Center.
