The state Higher Education Coordinating Board's decision to consider raising minimum college-admission requirements has stirred more questions than answers from the public.

Educators wonder if it's too much to ask the current high-school-freshman class to face both the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test and a new slew of college-admission standards. Others wonder whether the schools have the resources to deal with the changes.

Even a member of the Higher Education Coordinating Board who voted to move forward with changes is now asking exactly what the point is of having these minimum-admission standards at all.

For the past month, the public has debated whether to change what classes high-school students would have to take in order to apply to a four-year public college in Washington state. Tonight, the fourth public forum is scheduled in Tacoma.

The state board proposes a more-rigorous course: four years of math instead of the current three and two years of lab science instead of the current standard of one year of lab science and one year of nonlab science. The board also proposes requiring students to take at least three college-preparation courses each year in school.

On the college side, the board would do away with the Admission Index, which colleges currently use to rank students based on their grade-point averages and SAT or ACT scores, although students would still need to meet minimum grade-point averages and test scores to gain admission.

If approved, the changes would affect the current class of high-school freshmen.

"The composite reason for those requirements is first of all to inject more rigor into the curricula that students pursue," said Jim Sulton, executive director for the Higher Education Coordinating Board. "An additional motive is to make the college track the natural path for more students."

In December, the board voted to draft the changes and hear what the public had to say. The board has held forums in Spokane, Des Moines and Ellensburg.

Twenty to 40 people have attended the meetings, mostly school administrators and business leaders. Parent and student attendance has been sparse.

The board will discuss the public reaction at a meeting on June 23 and potentially vote on the changes in July.

Anthony Rose, a board member, said he supports the spirit of the changes but not the details.

"I'm all for it," said Rose. "I just want to see K-through-12 and high-school-graduation requirements correlate with the proposed changes in admission standards." The board doesn't have the authority to alter high-school graduation requirements.

Another board member, Jesús Hernández, initially supported moving forward with changes to minimum-admission standards, but he now asks, "Why do we need them at all?"

He says all the four-year colleges in the state already set minimum-admission requirements above the state board's standards.

"I'm concerned that it may create more confusion for students and parents," he said.

At the Ellensburg meeting, many were concerned that the new standards might take away resources from students who have aspirations for a technical career rather than interest in attending a four-year college.

Many support the changes, including the colleges, who say that better high-school preparation will ensure a student's success in college. Too many students who enter college need remedial classes, school administrators say.

The Bellevue School District is considering altering its graduation requirements so that students would take four years of math instead of three years, and the superintendent cited the state board's proposal as one supporting reason.

Sulton said the message he heard from supporters was, "It's about time." Business leaders told him they were spending a lot of time and energy on basic-education skills, and they were concerned about the global competitiveness of U.S. students.

The minimum is just that, he said: a minimum.

"It does not guarantee anyone admission into any given college," Sulton said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958