For Immediate Release

Jan. 12, 2016

Contact: Kirsten Baesler, 701-527-4664

Baesler Seeking Re-Election as ND School Superintendent

BISMARCK, N.D., Jan. 12, 2016 Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said Tuesday she will seek a second
four-year term as North Dakotas superintendent of public instruction.
Baesler said she will request a letter of support from delegates to the North Dakota Republican state
convention, which is being held April 1-3 at Scheels Arena in Fargo.
She is running for re-election to continue progress on a number of education initiatives, Baesler said.
During the 2015 Legislature, she won backing for her Leveraging the Senior Year initiative, which
strengthens college preparation for high school seniors.
Leveraging the Senior Year is aimed at reducing the number of North Dakota students who require
remedial studies while in college, and to broaden availability for advanced high school coursework for
students who are excelling. These efforts will save students and their parents time and tuition expense.
Baesler said she is especially excited by the challenges offered by the new federal education law, which
Congress approved in December. It allows state and local officials more control over education than they
have had in 25 years, Baesler said. The new law prohibits the federal Secretary of Education from
mandating academic standards and curriculum.
The previous law used testing and high school graduation rates as measurements of a schools success.
The new law, Baesler said, allows for more comprehensive and realistic ways of measuring school
performance.
Baesler said she will assemble a group of education stakeholders, including parents and representatives of
business and industry, to write a North Dakota school performance accountability plan that will be based
on what we value, and what we know makes a quality school.
During the 2015 Legislature, Baesler was a leader in a successful effort to obtain $3 million in state
support for local early childhood education programs. It was the first time that state funds have been
earmarked for prekindergarten.
She plans to continue North Dakotas first Student Cabinet, which the superintendent founded in the
spring of 2015. It is a group of 20 students who meet regularly to provide Baesler with a students view of
how North Dakota education policy is working. The Cabinets members range in age from fifth grade to a
college freshman.
Baesler is also heading a task force, which includes school administrators and legislators, which is
drafting suggestions for streamlining North Dakotas education data reporting system. Its work will help
to cut expenses and reduce bureaucracy in school districts.
We have accomplished much at the Department of Public Instruction in the last three years, but there is
much more to do, Baesler said.
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We have a priceless opportunity to make sure our schools are places of inspiration and motivation for
our students as they prepare for life, college and careers, Baesler continued. Now is the time we ensure
that every school in North Dakota is a place that parents want to send their children, because students will
be engaged in rich and relevant curriculum, and a place where educators want to teach, because there is
joy and reward in teaching and learning.
Baesler, of Mandan, was first elected as state superintendent in 2012, in her first run for statewide office.
Before she made the race, Baesler served for 23 years in Bismarcks public schools as a vice principal,
library media specialist, classroom teacher and instructional assistant, and worked briefly for the North
Dakota School Boards Association.
She also served on the Mandan school board for nine years, including seven years as the boards
president.
Baesler is a native of Flasher, a rural community in southwestern North Dakota. She has three adult sons.
The superintendent is in charge of the Department of Public Instruction, which has 99 employees and a
two-year budget of $2.33 billion. Most of the agencys budget is distributed as state aid to local school
districts.
The department also oversees the State Library, on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck; the School for the
Deaf, in Devils Lake; and the School for the Blind/North Dakota Vision Services, in Grand Forks.
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