Seeking the office are incumbent Kirsten Baesler, Jim Bartlett of Bottineau, state Rep. Jason Heitkamp of Wahpeton and Darko Draganic of Bismarck.

Baesler has held the office since 2013. She previously worked for Bismarck Public Schools and for the North Dakota School Boards Association and served on the Mandan School Board.

The state Republican Party has issued letters of support for Baesler in the past, but this year the party threw its support behind Bartlett, a former executive director for the North Dakota Homeschool Association. Bartlett, who formerly taught engineering at North Dakota State University, operates a farm-to-consumer business with his family.

Heitkamp earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics with a minor in business from North Dakota State University, Fargo. He also took courses in robotics, hydraulics and electrical when employed at 3M (Minnesota, Mining, and Manufacturing) in Wahpeton. He is a truck driver and retired farmer and formerly worked as a financial adviser and served as an EMT-B and firefighter.

Kirsten Baesler

Heitkamp has served as a Richland County commissioner, city council member in Bottineau and Prairie Rose and member of the Richland County Job Development Authority.

Draganic, a former administrator for the University of Mary and United Tribes Technical College, holds a bachelor’s degree in technology and a master’s in information systems. He worked in data science before taking positions in higher education. At the University of Mary, he served as director of student retention, and at United Tribes Technical College, he served as health and wellness director and later as dean of enrollment.

Draganic did not respond to requests for additional information, but other candidates answered questions about their priorities and background.

What would be your top priorities for the office, if elected?

Bartlett: (1) Implement a strategic vision that removes all social engineering done using false philosophies from the public school curriculum, assessments, credentials, policies and budgeting. This returns the focus to reading, writing and arithmetic and solid morality rooted in the non-sectarian Ten Commandments (morals) required by the N.D. Constitution with its Judeo-Christian context. (2) Identify teachable teachers, staff, administrators and organizations who were simply not aware of the false philosophies and train them to recognize and help eliminate them completely from North Dakota education. Dismiss those who are committed to social engineering using false philosophies. (3) Eliminate standardized testing, which is designed to dumb down with short answers, put pressure on students and teachers and waste time teaching to a national social agenda. (4) God gave parents the right to direct the education of their children, not the state. Lean accounting can be used at each school to identify the values that parents (like customers) want. Everything else can be then considered waste to be eliminated. (5) Initiate legislation to acknowledge these better approaches.

Jason Heitkamp

Baesler: (1) Ensure all students graduate Choice Ready with the knowledge, skills and disposition to do whatever they choose to do after high school, whether it’s college, entering the workforce or enlisting in the military. (2) Address the critical teacher shortage. NDDPI secured a $4 million U.S. Department of Labor grant for teacher apprenticeships that’s funding nearly 700 new teachers to teach at low- or no cost to the teacher candidates. Keep these and veteran teachers in the profession with proper support and pay. (3) Education choice: Grow demand in communities and grow support among lawmakers for education choice. Provide high-quality, personalized learning choices for all students with accountability for services received for taxpayers’ money. (4) Intervene in chronically low-performing schools: In 2025, the Legislature provided the state superintendent authority to intervene in any school identified as chronically low-performing and has failed to improve on its own. (5) Provide Be Legendary school board training: School boards become focused on student outcome based decisions; “Student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change.”

Heitkamp: My priorities involve going back to the North Dakota Constitution, both teaching it and following it. Our constitution clearly states that the legislative assembly shall provide for a uniform system of free public schools throughout the state, beginning with the primary and extending through all grades up to and including schools of higher education, except that the legislative assembly may authorize tuition, fees, and service charges to assist in the financing of public schools of higher education. Right now, I believe the state is operating unconstitutionally with the mill levy being used to finance schools. 45-55 % of property tax in the State of North Dakota is going to schools when the North Dakota Constitution also states that the legislative assembly shall be prohibited from raising revenue to defray the expenses of the state through the

What background or achievements do you bring to the position?

Heitkamp: I have a background in city, county and state government, serving on the city councils of Prairie Rose and Bottineau, Richland County as a commissioner, and as a state senator during the 67th legislative session from District 26. On day one I will use my background and experience, which includes being a financial adviser, to review the teacher retirement plan, bring transparency and work with budgets, review teacher pay, decrease administration costs and reevaluate interstate education programs.

Baesler: Growing up in a small town in southwest North Dakota, I learned the Class B value of hard work and the faith needed to provide servant leadership. First, as a teacher’s aide, then teacher, vice principal, district office leader in Bismarck and school board president in Mandan, I’ve spent the past 34 years preparing students for life after graduation as my priority. My three sons were all educated in N.D. public schools, and my three granddaughters will soon be. I am passionate about developing all students into knowledgeable citizens who have respect, courage, integrity, a sense of responsibility, and an appreciation for the unique nature of this great nation. As state superintendent, I’ve kept N.D. education at the leading edge of changing global needs. I have a proven track record of fighting to ensure that every family can choose the education opportunities their child needs. I have established the consistency, continuity and credibility needed to work with legislators, school leaders and citizens to get the job done for students and their families.

Bartlett: In 1983, when I became a Christian, I lived with pastors who were traveling to North Dakota to support Christian schools and home schools who were being taken to courts by the N.D. Department of Public Instruction. For 30 years, I have studied and fully understand how North Dakota public education was institutionally captured by the far left and is being used to advance secular, Marxist and postmodern agendas. These social engineering agendas result in poor test scores, not believing in reality and waste much time and money. Knowing the root of the academic and moral problems makes fixing them straight forward and effective, using the N.D. Constitution rooted in its Judeo-Christian context. I have an associate’s degree in automotive technology, bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, Ph.D. in engineering, which involved biomechanics with Mayo Clinic. I taught and practiced aircraft and electronics manufacturing at NDSU for 17 years, directed the North Dakota Homeschool Association for six years and started Christian ministries, schools and colleges. I now operate Bartlett Farms near Lake Metigoshe.