We are wondering how many candidates are lining up to take over from Seattle Superintendent of Schools Raj Manhas. We wonder because it appears that anyone who takes this job may simply be unable to lift our schools out of the ash heap, no matter how experienced they are.
Blaming this superintendent for doing - or trying to do - what he was asked to do would the the height of hypocracy. He was told to unwind the financial problems of his predecessors and to set the district on a firm financial path. He did that, even while angering many parents over school closures. Manhas is a financial wizard, in our view, because he did the job even though doing the job eventually cost him his job. He finally quit, apparently worn down by the criticism.
Some of the problem was the school board laxity in financial oversight, but most of the blame sits right on us, each citizen of the city and school district. We have permitted our schools in Seattle and right across our state to be left gasping for financial aid. Some districts, like Bellevue in our neighborhood, are surviving quite well because parents and the surrounding community are helping the district do its job and educate its children.
Seattle Schools aren't as lucky. Even though there are hundreds of men and women in this district who support schools with their time, commitment and money - and teachers who often buy supplies, books and other needed supplies out of their own pockets - we are not as wealthy as some districts.
As this newspaper has said many times, our Legislature has abdicated its responsibility under the state constitution and not fully financed the common schools. We have chosen to let our children flounder in a world where even the youth of China and India are often better educated.
The governor and the ruling Democrats have proposed some relief, but not nearly enough. Some Republicans are counselling lawmakers to save the surplus for the inevitiable rainy day. But we think the rain is already here because our children are failing to be reading, to be able to math and to comprehend the world at a rate that permits them to survive in this new, technical world.
We hope someday soon, our colleges will not have to treat our high school graduates and a group to be remedially schooled before they can take upper level courses. That is what is happening now.
-Jack Mayne
