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Washington superintendents rank among the highest鈥憄aid staffers in the state鈥攁nd even after being terminated for poor performance, they often walk away with hefty severance packages. Republicans moved to curb this practice, only to have Democrats quickly insist that local school boards retain control. Suddenly, they support local control!

House Bill 2050 is supposed to save funds for K-12 schools. State Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn) offered one amendment that would cap the severance agreement for the superintendent at $50,000.

Predictably, Democrats said no to both amendments.

Washington Democrats argue for excessive severance

Couture, arguing for a severance cap, argued that “there are some superintendents who are in charge of the performance of a lot of the school districts in our districts and across the state, who aren’t up to snuff.” Yet, he argued, it’s expensive to get rid of them, essentially rewarding failure with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“When we when the school board, and therefore the community through their elected school board, wants to discharge a school superintendent, what we often see is this very frustrating severance payout to those school superintendents,” Couture argued. “Sometimes it’s $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 or even more than $350,000 to pay out a school superintendent employee who has failed to manage their school or their employees, or even… sometimes fail to even show up to work.”

But Democrats claimed this was unreasonable, voting it down.

State Rep. Monica Stonier (D-Vancouver), who took a lead role in undercutting parents’ rights by dismantling the Parents’ Bill of Rights, argued that the amendment would “undercut the responsibility that local school board directors have and the relationship that they have with their communities” in negotiating for a new superintendent. Her argument didn’t really make much sense.

Washington Democrats suddenly okay with high-paid failures

But Republicans were not done trying to save school districts’ money.聽Couture offered a second amendment. It would cap superintendent salary at $250,000.

The Allyn Republican explained that over 85 superintendents make more than $250,000 a year, which is far higher than the average salary for the district they represent. The Chehalis superintendent makes $545,00 and Renton superintendent brings in $428,000, for example.

“And what are we getting for it? Like you heard previously, we have a stunning crisis in our academic outcomes, some of the worst outcomes in three decades in Washington state for reading, writing, math, and science. That’s unacceptable. These people are the superintendents. Are the captains of the school district ships,” Couture explained.

Again, Democrats pushed back and shot down the amendment.

State Rep. Steve Bergquist (D-Renton) argued, again, that the amendment “take[s] away local control of our school board directors.” He said allowing for high salaries will bring in the best candidates for the job, though he did not explain why so many of them are failing to perform with the current limitless salary opportunities.

Suddenly Washington Democrats want total control of their districts?

Washington Democrats have never been champions of local control. Under their far鈥憀eft, Democrat鈥憆un legislature, lawmakers have bent over backwards to strip school boards of the power to keep pornographic, left鈥憌ing propaganda off library shelves.

Last year, Democrats sponsored and passed House Bill 2331 (HB 2331). It prohibited school boards from refusing to approve books and other educational materials, including library books, if the subject 鈥渞elates to or includes the study of the role and contributions of individuals or groups that are part of a protected class as established in public school nondiscrimination provisions.鈥� While it applied to all protected classes, the intent of the bill was around LGBT-themed books.

But the Democrats鈥� effort didn’t stop all so-called LGBT 鈥渂ook bans.鈥� A school may still ban books or other materials if it expressly criticizes progressive political movements, such as the one proclaiming gender a 鈥渟ocial construct鈥� that is fluid or that we 鈥渁ssign gender at birth.鈥�

What happened to Washington Democrats’ support in maintaining local control in school districts? They never had that priority. Instead, it’s about supporting educators, no matter the cost, and no matter the results. Ideologically, they feel mandated into it.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the聽podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on聽,听,听, and聽.