Pair Rap Knuckles In Schools Race Bergeson, Taber Both Are 54, From Olympia, But Similarities End There

No one blinked when Terry Bergeson decided to run for state superintendent of public instruction. She’d fashioned a life on education, even ran for the job once before.

But her rival appeared like a pop quiz - out of the blue and unnerving for many.

After making millions of dollars owning low-income housing, Ron Taber abruptly set his eye on public education.

The Olympia businessman vowed to turn the system on end and has spent nearly $1 million and all his spare time to do so.

A longtime friend said that’s typical Taber.

“He did the same thing in real estate, farming and politics,” said Sam Reed, Thurston County auditor and a friend of Taber’s since they led the Young Republican Club at Washington State University.

“He goes to excess and ends up being highly controversial. He always had that facility of going overboard.”

The candidates, both 54 and from Olympia, are proud of their differences, which makes choosing between them a slam dunk for all but the most indecisive voters.

“There’s a real bright line between us,” Taber said. “A bright line that reflects a completely different vision.”

Bergeson, a Democrat, abhors ballot initiatives to create charter schools and school vouchers. Taber, a Republican, applauds both.

She favors bilingual education, which Taber opposes.

Taber wants smaller school districts. He wants to make Spokane District 81 easier for parents to navigate by breaking it into several sections.

Bergeson scoffs at the idea, arguing it’d create redundancy and jack up administration costs.

Bergeson likes Spokane schools’ plan to teach elementary students social skills and concepts in the “180 Lessons in Daily Living” program. Taber said he wouldn’t dream of trying it without every parent’s written permission.

“All he ever talks about is shining the light on the problems and holding people’s feet to the fire,” Bergeson said. “To me, that sounds like a monitor and a regulator.”

“She’s worked for the government all her life, or the teachers’ union,” said Taber. “I’ve been a successful small businessman for the last 25 years.

“It’s even a Cougars versus Huskies battle,” said Taber, the WSU graduate. Bergeson went to the University of Washington.

In college, Reed labeled Taber a “creature of controversy.”

Again and again, Taber has proven him right.

In the past three decades, Taber has skipped from teaching college classes in New York to owning low-income housing in Washington to breeding cattle in Florida.

As a rancher, he was expelled from the American Angus Association in 1984, accused of trying to pass off crossbreeds as purebreds.

As a financially successful landlord, he has frustrated inspectors with what they call a lack of cooperation and neglected properties.

Rural property specialists in Puyallup, Wash., documented infestations of ants and cockroaches, smoke detectors that didn’t work, and carpeting they considered “a serious health problem.”

Trouble plagued property Taber owned in Central Washington, too.

“We had a real poor working relationship with him,” said Randy Baird, rural development specialist in Yakima. “It was more adverse than anything.”

Recently, however, Taber’s property manager is more cooperative and has begun making “major repairs,” Baird said.

Taber says the bad inspections aren’t his fault; he owns the properties but hires someone else to manage them.

The cattle scandal? “It falls into the category of ‘no big deal,”’ he said.

Now, in his campaign for superintendent, Taber embraces controversy, saying it helped him grab the spotlight from 10 other candidates in the primary election.

He raised ire by suggested caning juvenile drug dealers who won’t reveal their suppliers, although Taber vacillates on whether he really meant it.

In another speech, he described Spanish as the language of fruit pickers, doormen and dishwashers. After rivals asked him to quit the race, Taber apologized, saying he meant to criticize bilingual education and not Spanish-speaking people.

Acquaintances describe Taber as ever-changing.

He was once an atheist who advocated legalizing marijuana and cheered on Robert Kennedy for president. Last year, he passed out thousands of voter guides for the Christian Coalition.

That’s where Dean Ladd, vice chairman of Spokane’s Republican Party, met Taber and came to admire his run for superintendent.

“All the effort he’s put into this for a year and a half, and all the money he’s spent … I wouldn’t be spending my money like that,” Ladd said. “But he feels so strongly our education needs a drastic improvement. He’s very genuine.”

Taber’s plans for school vouchers frighten people such as Secretary of State Ralph Munro. Taber sponsored Initiative 173, which would give parents public money to spend on private school tuition.

“I think he’s one of the leaders to convert our public schools to private schools,” Munro said.

Yet Taber has loyal admirers, such as Donna Kuhn, a Spokane resident and member of Washington Parents Coalition for Academic Excellence, a group critical of education reform.

“I’m going to vote for him,” said Kuhn, who likes Taber’s talk about giving parents more control over public education.

“I think there’s too much government intervention in what should be local school decisions.”

While the state superintendent doesn’t wield much policy-setting power, Taber said he’d craft big change by working with legislators.

Throughout the state, he’d work to move disabled children out of special classrooms and into traditional classes.

He’s also incensed by what he sees as the rewriting of history. For instance, he said, “revisionist history that makes Christopher Columbus out to be the bad guy and the Indians out to be the good guys.”

“My view is that Western civilization is our heritage and that it is superior to other civilizations and should be the main focus of study in our schools.”

While Taber bounced from one career to the next, Bergeson focused on public education - as teacher, school counselor, administrator and president of the state teachers union.

Bergeson definitely has the education vote - endorsed by the teachers’ union she once headed, the state principals’ association and other education groups.

It wasn’t always so.

When she ran against current superintendent Judith Billings in 1992, the Washington Education Association endorsed Billings.

“This isn’t to say Terry wasn’t popular. She was,” said Carla Nuxoll, who was WEA president at the time. “The vote was very close.”

Many teachers decided on Billings because the union had already worked successfully with her for four years, Nuxoll said.

But the president of a teachers union in northeast Washington said he’ll vote for Bergeson only because Taber terrifies him.

He dislikes the state Commission for Student Learning, where until recently Bergeson helped redesign the state’s testing system as part of education reform.

“They’re reinventing the wheel, doing tinkering on a massive scale,” said Dirk Christianson, president of the Northeast Columbia Education Association.

“Everybody is going to be forced to teach to their test,” said Christianson, who believes local schools will forfeit too much control.

“My fear is they’ll tie in the district’s ability to pass the test to the funding for school districts.”

Julie Bauer, a Colbert woman with three children, said Bergeson is out of touch with parents.

“I really think the representation of the people would be better with someone who’s not tied with the union and the school administration,” she said.

“They’re patting each other on the back, basically.”

Others praise Bergeson’s efforts. Munro said she’s helping the Washington economy by emphasizing foreign language classes to prepare public school students for world trade.

“I think the public schools are part of the most valuable gift we’ve been given by our forefathers,” he said. “We kind of take it for granted.”

In a mid-October speech to teachers gathered in a Chewelah school cafeteria, Bergeson assured them the reforms she’s worked for will make life better for children.

At the end, she received enthusiastic applause.

“They will be able to create jobs,” Bergeson said. “They will be able to build a future better than anything we’ve ever dreamed of.”

Then, she delivered the line she believes distinguishes her from her opponent: “The world’s not going downhill.”

, DataTimes