The firestorm touched off by Michael Kundu is spreading across the state.
Kundu is the Marysville School Board member who sent e-mails to colleagues and school administrators linking a student’s classroom success with their race. Since those e-mails became public, he’s been the target of condemnation and urged to resign. (The e-mails can be read with the story link above.)
On Monday, he sought to apologize and explain himself in this article in The Herald.
Still, Monday night his fellow school board members called on him to leave elected office.
Also Monday, 23 state lawmakers sent Kundu a letter urging him to apologize and “act with honor in bringing closure to this appalling incident.”
We are indignant and outraged to read your inflammatory comments on “race and [educational] achievement” in a June 3, 2010 electronic message, circulated at your request,” begins the letter. We unequivocally denounce your assertion that “there is a definitive factor played by racial genetics in intellectual achievement.”
State Reps. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens, and Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, who are members of the House Education Committee, collaborated on the letter. They circulated it early Monday to fellow House members with an invitation to sign on.
Among the signers are Reps. Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, and Skip Priest, R- Federal Way, who are the chairman and vice chairman of the House Education Committee respectively. Among the other signers are House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Rep. Kevin Parker, R-Spokane.
Hope said today he was “disgusted” when he read Kundu’s e-mail and contacted Santos as both serve on the House education panel.
They decided to not urge Kundu to resign because “we didn’t feel it was our place to say it,” Hope explained.
“I do believe he should resign,” Hope said. “There is no doubt in my mind that if someone believes this to be legitimate and should be a factor of evaluating student success it will find its way into policy.
“It’s 2010. Nobody should have those types of opinions and hold office,” he said.
Neither Hope nor Santos had heard from Kundu as of this afternoon.
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