Education is at the forefront of the race for 5th District Position No. 2.
Republican candidate Chad Magendanz, president of the Issaquah School Board, and David Spring, a teacher from North Bend, are looking to replace Glenn Anderson, who was running for lieutenant governor.
In addition to Anderson’s suggestion, Magendanz stated he decided to run after his experience on the Issaquah School Board made him realize how much influence the state legislature could have on local education.
“I spent a lot of time going back and forth to Olympia trying to promote the best interest of children,” Magendanz said. “It was a bit of a wake up call for me when I realized…there wasn’t more local control. I’ve found the influence is where the money is spent.”
For Magendanz, the poor economy is linked to the quality of the education system and its ability to prepare students for the workforce.
“We’ve got a jobs problem,” Magendanz said. “We are at the bottom of the heap with unemployment. We have folks available to work who don’t have the skills. There’s a huge skills gap between what the market needs and what our public schools are providing.”
Magendanz said he would take a broad interpretation of McCleary v. State, in which the state Supreme Court ruled the state was not abiding by the state Constitution to provide adequate funding for public education.
Magendanz said he would promote the idea of a system which would help transition students more seamlessly from the schools into the job market.
When it comes to appropriating the money to fund education, Magendanz and Spring have separate ideas. Magendanz pointed to more responsible spending of tax dollars. While Spring, who has a bachelor’s degree in science education from Washington State University and a master’s degree in education and child development from the University of Washington, agrees with Magendanz on the Supreme Court ruling — Spring believes eliminating tax loopholes is the best way to appropriate funding.
Spring added that companies like Microsoft need to pay their “fair share” of taxes, which means paying the same rate as other companies.
“This is not sustainable,” Spring said. “The corporate tax breaks have skyrocketed in the past 15 years. You’ve just seen a massive increase where multinational corporations that used to pay state taxes aren’t paying taxes. Property owners taxes have gone up dramatically.
With his educational background, Spring believes as a teacher he understands how to best provide funding for schools and would push to fund hiring 20,000 teachers immediately if elected.
“I understand how crucial our public schools are to our children’s development,” Spring said. “I’m a huge believer in early childhood education how we can help parents provide a better future for the children and help our preschools and day care centers. Clearly after a lot of the discussion in Olympia any parent knows more than how kids are raised than some of the legislators.”
This is the third time Spring has run for this seat. He said he will continue to run until he feels the legislature is providing adequate funding for public schools.
During the August primary election, Magadenaz took 53.45 percent of the vote, while Spring took 42 percent.