Letter to the Editor: Reykdal Understands Challenges of School Students

— by Kari Schuh —

I first met Chris Reykdal in January of 2016 when he and five other candidates running for the Superintendent of Public Instruction spoke to a cohort group of WSU graduate students. I could see then that Chris, hands down, was the frontrunner of all the candidates. Again, just last May, I was able to witness Chris captivate a room full of well over a thousand teachers in Spokane.

I’ve been a special education and CTE teacher for 15 years on Orcas and currently I am a Director of Career and Technical Education in Duvall. It is extremely important to me that our next Superintendent of Public Instruction understands the significance of the day to day happenings in our public schools, how this work can change lives, they know the relevance and rigor of Career and Technical Education, and they will fight hard to increase those types of learning opportunities for our kids.

Chris far exceeds my expectations of what I would want in a state education leader. He is someone who GETS what our students, parents, and educators face every day – including an over-reliance on standardized testing, overcrowded classrooms, underfunded schools, a shortage of teachers, and a continually increasing dependence on local property tax levies.

Because of his six-year experience as a lawmaker, Chris has already established connections in Olympia that not only reach across party lines but will ensure that he can start the job with a much smaller learning curve than his opponent. Chris has been a teacher, a school board member, he understands finance, plus his wife is an educator too.

Providing more project-based, hands on, 21st Century Skills, CTE courses will raise our graduation rates which is not only good for our students but also for our economy and society as whole. From my perspective, we need to focus far more energy on making our kids well-rounded people who are ready for the “real world” after high school. Chris Reykdal is the only candidate who has shown a true commitment to returning CTE programs to our schools, he’s committed to eliminating high-stakes standardized testing, he is focused on the WHOLE child, he wants to increase pathways to graduation so our students can be successful, and to find incentives in order to recruit more teachers to the profession.

I urge you to vote this November 8th for Chris Reykdal for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.