WASL, fixing budgets top McLaughlin priorities

Bob McLaughlin knows budgets.

As schools superintendent in Union Gap, he and the school board had to balance multimillion-dollar budgets every year. So it irks him when he sees what he believes is unnecessary spending by the state, which is facing a projected deficit of more than $2 billion over the next biennium.

That gap should not be made up on the backs of state residents and businesses, he said. Lawmakers need to fix the problem they got the state into.

“They should do what everybody else does — just like the schools — they cut back,” McLaughlin said.

A self-described “very conservative” Republican, the 67-year-old McLaughlin has campaigned on a promise not to support tax increases without a direct vote of the people.

“People should have the least amount of government to have the best government,” he said. “I strongly believe people should have a voice in every tax placed upon them.”

He also strongly believes in accountability, which is why he supports using the Washington Assessment of Student Learning as a graduation requirement.

Despite concerns about its cost, he believes the WASL has made students and teachers more accountable. Implementation of the test actually encouraged him to hang on six more years as Union Gap superintendent before retiring in 2004, he said. During that time, he saw more and more students passing the test.

“People said it couldn’t be done,” McLaughlin said. “It can be done.”

He wants to bring a similar level of accountability to the Legislature, particularly when it comes to budgeting. The state should fund education, fund criminal justice and take care of its neediest citizens, he said.

“Then cut, cut, cut.”

McLaughlin earned a bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University, a master’s degree at Central Washington University, and a doctorate from Washington State University. He and his wife, Carolynn, have three grown sons, a grown daughter and a grown foster son.

• On the Web: www.bobmclaughlin.ws