City of Seattle

Incumbent Liza Rankin was elected in 2019 and took office shortly before the chaos of the pandemic hit our schools. Prior to her election, Rankin was a longtime community organizer and artist who had served on the PTA of her children's school as well as on the board of the Seattle Council PTSA and the advisory board at Sand Point Arts and Cultural Exchange at Magnuson Park, among other leadership roles. Rankin began her school activism by bringing food to teachers walking picket lines during the 2015 strike. She ran on a vision to support the school board's new Strategic Plan and ensure that every child has equitable access and opportunity to learn.

In our extensive interview with Rankin, she reiterated that the board had made excellent progress on those issues, including reducing disproportionate discipline against boys and students of color, banning isolation practices, and limiting restraints. She noted that progress had been made on inclusionary practices for students with disabilities, moving the city's public schools from the bottom quartile to the bottom half nationwide. Rankin is running again to continue this work, but also to address head-on the issues facing students and schools. 

We found Rankin to be clear-eyed on the issue of the budget. She told us without equivocation that any one-time fixes have run out and expenditures are higher than state revenue provides. Rankin told us that in the last 8 years, 10 schools had opened, and a mismatch of schools open and students who actually attend mean the school closures are likely one of the ways to close the budget gap. For example, she stated that 15 elementary schools have fewer than 250 students and the district could save money on administration and provide better opportunities for students if they were added to larger schools.

Rankin noted that an upgrade to school lock security would be complete in Seattle Public Schools soon, and outside of that, Carlsen and Rankin were somewhat similar on school safety. 

Rankin is a good choice if you're looking for someone with institutional knowledge to serve during a challenging time for our schools. 

Challenging Rankin this year is Debbie Carlsen, a consultant, former NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Washington Interim Policy Director, and co-founder and executive director of LGTBQ Allyship. She serves as advocacy chair of both the Olympic Hills Elementary PTA board and the 46th Democrats as a Co-Policy & Advocacy Chair, as well as fundraising chair for the National Women’s Political Caucus.

As a nonbinary person with a diverse family, Carlsen wants schools to be welcoming to all, especially in a climate of conservatives passing anti-LGTBQ laws. Though she does not have much detail available on her website, Carlsen lists transparency, family engagement, and representation in schools as her top three policy priorities. In her interview with the 36th Legislative District Democrats, she also emphasized robust special education and regaining the confidence of Seattle parents and families.

On the issue of the budget, Carlsen was hesitant to say that closures were inevitable. Closures in the past have been disastrous, she said, and more community meetings would need to happen in District 1 before she made a decision. She proposed a 15 percent cut to staff in the central office, though it seems very unlikely that this alone would cover a budget gap of this magnitude. 

On school safety, Carlsen and Rankin were somewhat similar. Both agreed that students had been clear that more surveillance and policing in schools was not the way forward, and both felt that gun violence education and community lobbying for better gun violence legislation were needed. Carlsen felt that directors could and must do more to meet with community members and parents, especially right after the tragedy at Ingraham.

If voters are looking for an experienced advocate hoping to bring change and improve transparency for parents and students, Carlsen could be a good choice.