Legislators need the political will to reshape Washington's schools

I'll grant state lawmakers this: The epitome of challenge is pushing costly education reforms in the midst of the worst budget crisis in history.

With billions to cut before they sleep, it isn't surprising that legislators are fried. But leadership is all about making a way out of no way. The Legislature can, and should, enact an updated definition of education that envisions new basics such as all-day kindergarten, 21st-century technology and a high-school standard of six periods a day so students aren't scrambling to graduate with the right set of credits.

All this comes with a hefty price tag and state coffers are empty. That's why the legislation that ought to land very soon on the governor's desk should be accompanied, not by dollars, but by an irrevocable statement of intent. Money can exchange hands after the state's financial condition improves.

This will require political courage, a good dose of which evaporated the last time lawmakers were at this same crossroads.

Earlier in the session, two bills packed with the things I outlined above and more were making their way up the legislative chain when the state teachers union offered lawmakers a choice: Find a billion or two to pay for the bills or kill them. Count those two bills as among the swiftest legislative deaths in history.

Lawmakers came tiptoeing back with two new reform bills. Reading them is fast work because they don't say much. They are essentially placeholders and the plan is to get them passed — without raising too much attention or ire — and then add substantive reform language. That is so not the definition of courageous leadership.

While Washington crawls toward change, some of the money to implement it will be lost if we don't get the lead out. A sizable chunk of the $100 billion in federal stimulus money for our nation's schools is tied to reform efforts. Rules are still being crafted, but federal specifications include using the money to expand school days, measure student achievement and use performance pay to reward good teachers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan correctly sees our fiscal crisis as a ripe time to reshape schools.

Our state's lawmakers ought to agree. They are quaking in the face of an 800-pound gorilla, the Washington Education Association and its 78,000 members. But they haven't seen anything yet. On the opposite side are those who want reform, a broad coalition of PTA parents, school superintendents, business leaders and advocates for low-income and minority children who put their numbers at 150,000.

It doesn't have to descend into war.

I suspect teachers want the same thing as Mary Alice Heuschel, superintendent of the Renton School District. She recently told me about a family of eight children who enrolled in her district. None of the kids had ever been to school. All of them deserve, and state law requires, quality education.

But they can only get it if we move from the current open-ended vague definition of basic education to something more substantial. Lawmakers can do this and the public should not let them off the hook until they do.

Lynne K. Varner's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is lvarner@seattletimes.com