Educator wants to make health care a priority

Ed Foote’s first house sat where Spokane Valley City Hall’s north parking lot is now – in the heart of the Valley.

But Foote, a Democrat, is concerned that Spokane-area natives can’t make a living in the places they call home. That’s one issue he hopes to take to Olympia next year as a District 4 legislator. Foote announced his candidacy for a House of Representatives seat Monday.

Job growth, improving the economy, universal health care and education are Foote’s top priorities.

“We have smart kids coming out of the high schools and colleges here, and there’s nothing for them,” he said. Foote wants to attract more professional jobs to the region to balance the large number of minimum- and low-wage service jobs.

Foote works as a program manager for the International Refugee Council, a nonprofit company that helps refugees transition to life in Spokane. He previously taught English as a second language and citizenship at the Community Colleges of Spokane, and he spent a year and a half teaching English in South Korea, an experience that helped shape his thoughts on education and health care.

In South Korea, Foote paid the government $40 a month for health-care coverage. When he was hospitalized for a day, it only cost him $35. Foote thinks that many societal problems would diminish if the federal and state governments here offered similar coverage.

“Employers are starting to drop workers (from coverage),” he said. “High medical costs are making products cost more. It’s killing us in so many ways.”

South Korea’s strict standardized testing system soured Foote’s feelings about high-stakes tests such as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL.

“Curriculum has to require critical thinking,” he said. “Test scores only show what they know that day.”

Foote recently earned his Washington state teaching certificate and plans to substitute teach in Spokane area schools this year. He has done some substitute teaching in the Post Falls district.

Coincidentally, all three Democratic candidates in the Fourth District races have ties to teaching. Jim Peck, who’s running against Rep. Larry Crouse, is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant and a current substitute teacher. Tim Hattenburg is challenging Sen. Bob McCaslin and retired from teaching in 1993.

Foote is challenging incumbent Lynn Schindler for the House seat. He is 31 years old, single and doesn’t have children.

This is Foote’s second attempt at political office. He ran for a spot on Spokane Valley’s City Council in 2002, but lost in the primary.