SPOKANE, Wash. — Candidates for the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction debated in downtown Spokane on Wednesday afternoon.
Navy veteran and Peninsula School District board member, David Olson, went toe-to-toe with incumbent and former Washington Representative, Chris Reykdal during Wednesday’s debate.
They discussed student mental health, artificial intelligence, social media and cell phone use at school.
Regarding AI, Olson and Reykdal debated on its potential impact and how it could be used to improve learning.
“It’s not a website that you go find something. It’s something that you’re allowed to create with. So we put guidance to our educators to shape the classroom. They’re going to have to teach differently, because the five-page paper that took you and I weeks to write, pouring through card catalogs and libraries, it literally gets done in five seconds,” said Reykdal.
He also likened AI to the calculator, saying there was hesitation when calculators were first introduced in the classroom.
Olson’s response focused on how to promote equity while incorporating AI across different districts.
“I believe that schools across the state need to have more support from OSPI to help them fund some of these new AI initiatives. Not every school can afford to bring in the technology like mine can,” he said.
He went on to say that OSPI needs to invest in technology across the state regardless of a district’s specific financial demographics.
On the topic of mental health, Olson criticized Reykdal’s funding for school services that are meant to bolster students’ mental wellbeing.
“Our teachers are not trained psychologists. They need those extra supports in the class so that we can do early intervention and early identification of students that might be struggling,” he said.
Olson said that Reykdal’s state funding Full Time Employee model only funds eight psychologists for 9,000 students in the Peninsula School District.
“We hired 13, so the state does not fund enough money for our schools,” said Olson. “We pay them out of our levy.”
He went on to say the current cell phone policy used in the Peninsula School District has also improved students’ mental health.
Reykdal said cell phone policies should be up to each local school district to set.
“It’s local boards that make these hard decisions. So again, I want to shape the comprehensive nature of this. You are living in a state right now that has issued advanced guidance on addressing behavior in classrooms. We’ve given a framework for school districts to address new cell phone policies. Many of them are already out ahead of us given local control, and that’s great,” said Reykdal.
He said his next focus will be building a comprehensive education effort to curb the use of cell phones at home.
With respect to funding, Reykdal voiced support for the use of capital gains tax and Olson did not specify plans for for how he would fund Washington schools.
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