Education Is on the Ballot

David Olson wants to restore rigor, crack down on social media, and protect Jewish students. Does he have a chance?

“If you’re going to talk about having a safe school and have everyone feel welcome and safe, then do something about it.”

When I reached David Olson, the conservative-leaning retired Naval officer who is up against incumbent Chris Reykdal for Washington state superintendent on the ballot this November, he sounded flustered. He had just gotten off a call with the Seattle Times editorial board and he had the sense it hadn’t gone well. The Times was grilling him about past comments and the scheduled hour-and-a-half conversation was done in 30 minutes. “I thought they might be looking to endorse me, but after their interview, I think they were probably looking for a reason not to,” he said.

The Seattle Times had excoriated Reykdal, under whose leadership test scores and proficiency levels have plummeted, and endorsed Reid Saaris — with reservations. Saaris hadn’t really proven himself, they admitted, but he was better than Olson, who hails from the Peninsula School District in Pierce County and is steadfast in his criticism of oppressor/oppressed ideology. This position is “disqualifying, since this reality is historical fact,” the editorial board wrote.

A candidate could fart rainbows, but if he’s backed by Republicans, in Seattle he’s DOA. In recent years, only the Seattle city attorney made it through the gauntlet, and still only barely edged out a police abolitionist who tweeted that “property destruction is a moral imperative.”

In all likelihood, the Saaris votes will go to Reykdal, and as unhappy as everyone is about the state of education, they will get in line and vote for the incumbent. Still, it’s a big state and Olson managed to land a spot on the ballot, despite raising less money than both men.

Given the rough school year behind us and the one surely to come, with rampant harassment of Jewish students in addition to widespread systems failure, this race is a contentious one. I reached out to both Olson and Reykdal for interviews about how they plan to address these issues as leaders of the state’s public education system. So far, only Olson has responded. Here is our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

The Cholent: You’re a surprise candidate. You raised less money than Chris Reykdal and Reid Saaris, and you ended up coming in as the challenger. Why do you think that is?

If you look at it, 61 percent of the state voted against Chris Reykdal. Also, Reid Saaris didn't run a campaign. He raised a lot of money, but from everyone I talked to across the state, they didn't see any yard signs. They didn't see anything about Reed Saaris. I didn't see him in any parades. I didn't see him at any fairs. I walked in parades, I worked fairs. I drove 5,000 miles a month to go all over the state to meet people and talk to people and let them know what I was about. I didn't see my opponents doing that. When you don't have a lot of money, you have two options. You either don't do anything, or you get in your car and do an old fashioned barnstorming tour.

There is an attitude in liberal circles that Republicans couldn't possibly run education, that they're going to ban books and ban African American studies, that kind of stuff. How would you combat that narrative? How would you make the case to Washington's moderate voters to vote for you as opposed to a progressive candidate?

Look at my record as a school board candidate and school board member. I've been on a school board for 11 years. I don't push those kind of policies in my school district. We're not banning books in our school district. We're not banning anything in our school district.

We don't teach Critical Race Theory in our school district. We don't teach our kids that there are oppressors and victims, because that should be a high-level class. There have been definite times in our history that weren't great. I'm fine with teaching all that, but I guess what I would say is, go to my campaign page. I'm all about educating kids, making sure we keep highly capable [cohorts] and academic rigor, making sure that we offer support services for students that are struggling, working to fully fund special education, because we're not doing a good job of that as a state. I'm an advocate for helping kids and supporting teachers, and I have a proven track record over 11 years of doing that.

We’re seeing harassment of Jewish students, rallies on school campuses, even teachers isolating and shaming Jewish students. How would you address this?

I think it's unfortunate that that's happening. Anytime someone talks about anti-Semitism, Chris Reykdal tries to lump it in with Islamophobia, and that's not the case. Reykdal threatens to withhold money from all these boards if they don't do what he wants. Why doesn't he threaten those schools and say, if you don't stop this, I'm going to take your funding? The superintendent could tell these schools, you need to knock this off and make sure that this stops so our kids feel safe. If you're going to talk about having a safe school and have everyone feel welcome and safe, then do something about it. But it doesn't seem to me that he cares if Jewish kids are safe and feel welcome. I'd get in my car and drive to that school and demand to see the principal and the superintendent and get in front of all the teachers and say, if you don't stop this, I'm going to take your funding.

The argument against that would probably be free speech, that this is protected political speech. How do you respond to that?

I guess you have to determine, is it hate speech? If they're saying, “we don't support the war in Gaza,” like people said we don't support the Vietnam War or the Iraq War — but to be using hate speech and demanding the annihilation of an entire race, like river to the sea, I think that's crossing the line. If it was a different ethnicity that these protests were about, instead of Jewish people, there would probably be more public outrage about what's happening. And I doubt the schools would allow those kind of walkouts.

Let’s talk about your priorities. What would be the first three things you would work on if you could do anything?

I would use my bully pulpit to get the state to fully fund special education, because our teachers are really having a tough time running their class when they don't have any specially trained para-educators. They're overwhelmed having to teach a class of 30 kids and a third of them have special needs. I think the state absolutely needs to step up and do more to fund special education, because too many school districts are using their levy money to pay for special ed, and it's just financially devastating them.

I would want to return to academic rigor and start having much more rigorous classes. Under Reykdal’s leadership, Washington public schools have been dumbed down. They're trying to get rid of highly capable programs and eliminate AP classes because they say it's inequitable. I would say to that, then have the state pay for the students that can't afford to take the AP exam. If you have a kid that can't afford to pay to be on the tennis team, you just tell the district, “hey, my kid really wants to play tennis, but we can't afford the $150 pay to play.” That school will give that kid the money to play. Or kids that really want to take these programs, maybe we need to give them some mentoring or tutoring to get them ready to take the test so that they can pass it and not fail. I think we need to make sure we're maintaining academic rigor, while at the same time providing the supports needed for the students that are struggling, such as mentoring or tutoring.

And then lastly, we need to do more to support student mental health. Kids are struggling. Our school district last year restricted cell phones and eliminated social media in the class. Our young girls aren't being socially bullied and body shamed and things like that. Lots of studies have shown that kids spend too much time on their smartphones and social media to a very detrimental impact on their mental health. And they're coming to school all wiped out and anxious, and they're not focusing, or they're in class and they're on their cell phones all day and the teachers are trying to teach and they can't get them off their mobile devices. It's frustrating and it's unfair for teachers. So I would push for policies to restrict cell phone use during class and ban social media at the router. We ban social media at the router, so they don't have any way of getting on social media during school. We've seen a positive impact on that. Students are more engaged or less stressed, their grades are going up, discipline issues are going down.

Anything else that you want to share that we haven’t covered?

They're going to come out and try and paint me as far right. Reykdal’s already going out telling reporters that I'm a MAGA and that I support Project 2025. I didn't even know what that was. I went and looked it up, and they want to abolish the Department of Education. I didn't say I want to do that. Reykdal has a losing record in eight years in office. Our schools are suffering, and the only thing he's going to be able to do is attack me, because he can't attack my record. I've got a great record in the Peninsula School District.

Photo: David Olsen (left) at a parade on Mercer Island / X.

In other news…

Read Sen. Jesse Salomon’s oped in the Seattle Times about the Wing Luke fallout.

Did Wing Luke staff profit off their walkout?

The Cholent was cited in Andrew Lapin’s article, “Declaring ‘hate has won,’ Seattle Jewish groups vow to move museum exhibit elsewhere,” about the Wing Luke fiasco, which appeared in JTA and the Times of Israel. One thing Andrew reveals is that the protestors who went on “strike” at Wing Luke raised over $11,000 on GoFundMe in the days after their walkout. They believed their walkout might result in lost wages — a reasonable assumption — but according to their own accounting, “The donations from this GoFundMe will support staff striking efforts from 5/22 - 5/26, and cover lost wages 5/27 and on as the museum remains closed to the public.” The museum they shut down. Moreover, they confirm they were paid through the 26th and include no details about how many days they went without pay, if any, after they returned on May 29th “to continue dialogue and safety precautions with Leadership.” Divided among 26 people, $11,000 doesn’t go very far, but that’s not the point. The GoFundMe is still open, with a goal of $15,000, and the last donation was six days ago.

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