Issue Position: A Long-term Vision for OSPI

Issue Position

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is made up of over 400 dedicated champions of public education. They are talented, hardworking, and they are challenged to balance the need for statewide efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability with essential local control. I will examine the organization from top-to-bottom, including a comprehensive performance assessment of the organization vis-à-vis it's constitutional, statutory, and agency determined goals and objects. This is hard work, but it is invaluable! I will include employees at every level of the organization to shape the future of OSPI. At a minimum, we will transform from an agency rich in data and regulatory obligations to one that is much stronger in research and policy development. The State Constitution places supervision of the entire K-12 system at the hands of OSPI. Therefore OSPI needs to be the most data-driven education organization in the state. We will need to translate quality data into high quality research and ultimately make policy changes, in partnership with local school officials, educators, the Legislature, and the Governor's Office, based on that research. The biggest thinking in education excellence should not be outsourced, farmed out, or privatized. OSPI needs to be THE leading research organization in the state when it comes to K-12 education policy and transformation.

As a former Deputy Executive Director at the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges I have hands-on experience balancing state and local control. I have direct experience balancing a $1.5 billion biennial operating budget, and I have direct experience helping to transform a talented organization into an even better data-driven organization. The management challenge at OSPI is immense, but the mission is right, the talent is there, and the urgency to transform has never been greater. It is time to substantially evaluate the organization and make the critical changes necessary to establish OSPI as the educational organization of excellence that our State Constitution contemplated 127 years ago!

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