A letter to the editor by Al Bauer (Our Readers’ Views, Nov. 13) refers to Congressman Denny Heck’s superb intelligence and stellar qualities of leadership when he chaired the K-12 education programs in the mid-’70s when he successfully responded to Judge Doran’s ruling to reform K-12 education.
As a school administrator, one of several selected to testify before Heck and his colleagues, I must disagree. The committee was to define and fully fund basic education. Chaired by Fred Haley, the committee did neither.
There were two educators on the committee that seldom spoke and those educators waiting to be heard were ignored.
If Mr. Heck was so successful, why 36 years later did the parents in the Chimacum School District need to file a second lawsuit over the same issue? Had educators trained in program budget planning been allowed to speak we would have explained that you cannot fully fund education until you know what it is you are to teach in all schools large and small. We are still waiting for that substantive content of a basic program Judge Doran asked for.
