A short, unneeded fight over WASL

Shame on Democratic leaders in the state Senate for their transparent bid to undo the WASL and hide their motives behind civil-rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Legislation by Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, to delay the Washington Assessment of Student Learning's reading and writing graduation requirement to 2012 was bad enough. At a time when 85 percent of high-school seniors have already passed the reading and writing requirements of the WASL, a delay is unnecessary. But holding the public hearing on the federal holiday commemorating King was a naked and misguided bid to gin up emotion against the academic standards ushered in by education reform.

Not even the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, chairwoman of the K-12 Education Committee, believes it stands a chance during this short session.

But McAuliffe and other WASL critics, including Sens. CraigPridemore, D-Vancouver, Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, James Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, and Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, couldn't resist a chance to make a pointless point.

These senators don't get it. Most of the students who are not on track to graduate are not held back by the WASL but by a lack of credits. Concerns about the WASL's contribution to the dropout rate ignore the fact that some students were discouraged about their academic prospects long before the WASL.

Let's not forget, reform grew out of a realization that schools were graduating students who couldn't read, write or compute well enough to enter college or survive in the job market.

The moral quandary was that most were poor or students of color. A push for equal opportunity is embodied in efforts to make sure everyone's diploma equals the same, solid foundation of skills and knowledge. It is only fair.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and serious-minded members of the Legislature are doing the difficult work. The math graduation requirement was delayed last session to 2013 while school districts revamp curricula and do a better job training teachers.

The same sense of urgency doesn't exist with reading and writing.