We never thought it could come down to this, but the biggest, most consequential, most up-in-the-air race on the ballot is this battle between incumbent Superintendent of Public Schools Chris Reykdal and conservative “nonprofit” director Maia Espinoza, aka Washington’s Betsy DeVos.
We’re here because Reykdal performed poorly in the August primaries. Though he led the crowded field with 40% of the vote share, the race’s collective conservative votes outnumbered his own, which is bad news. But Reykdal didn’t perform poorly because he’s a bad campaigner or because he’s bad at his job. He’s great at his job. Reykdal has been responsibly closing schools, navigating remote learning when 735,000 Washingtonians don’t have internet access, providing meals for the kids who relied on school for getting them, and doing everything he can to close the achievement gap.
