Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn says he won’t run again in 2016

Incum­bent Wash­ing­ton State Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion Randy Dorn announced today that he has decid­ed against run­ning for reelec­tion in 2016, which means we will have an open race for OSPI next year.

In a state­ment sent to NPI and oth­er media out­lets, Dorn announced his deci­sion and made it clear he would not be leav­ing politics:

After long, care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion, I have decid­ed not to run for reelec­tion for the Office of Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion in 2016. This deci­sion doesn’t mean, though, that I am giv­ing up the fight for our stu­dents and for a ful­ly fund­ed school sys­tem that is con­sis­tent with the para­mount duty of our state constitution.

I have made no secret of my extreme frus­tra­tion. Our con­sti­tu­tion requires a uni­form, amply fund­ed school sys­tem. But such a sys­tem doesn’t exist today, and I see lit­tle, if any, progress toward cre­at­ing one. The Gov­er­nor has nev­er offered a plan for reform­ing levies and reach­ing full state funding.

Some promis­ing pro­pos­als have been intro­duced in the Leg­is­la­ture, but none have made it even to a com­mit­tee vote. And the state Supreme Court has yet to impose sanc­tions mean­ing­ful enough to com­pel the Gov­er­nor and Leg­is­la­ture to act. Our stu­dents need and deserve vig­or­ous action from adults. But nei­ther the Gov­er­nor, the Leg­is­la­ture nor the Court have pro­vid­ed that leadership.

Regard­ing my future, I am keep­ing my options open.

I promise that, no mat­ter what, I will be watch­ing state offi­cials very care­ful­ly. Mean­ing­ful progress must be made to reform our inad­e­quate, inequitable and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al school fund­ing system.

As an edu­ca­tor and elect­ed offi­cial, I have spent my career fight­ing for our stu­dents. I am not about to stop now.

It has been an open secret in Olympia that Dorn was con­tem­plat­ing step­ping down as OSPI, and in fact, two would-be suc­ces­sors have already announced their can­di­da­cies: State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Reyk­dal (D‑22nd Dis­trict; Olympia) and Taco­ma school dis­trict AVID direc­tor Erin Jones, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as the Assis­tant Super­in­ten­dent of Stu­dent Achieve­ment under Dorn.

Both Jones and Reyk­dal have filed with the PDC and have been rais­ing mon­ey. They may be joined by oth­er can­di­dates now that Dorn has announced his step down.