“This whole topic of salary increases at a time when they failed so completely in their responsibilities toward students and schools is drenched in irony.”

Who said that? Some irate parent or legislator over the incessant push for more money from the educational establishment?

Wrong. It was Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Assn., on the occasion of the two percent cost-of-living increases granted for all 147 state lawmakers, nine elected executive branch officials and all the judges, effective this September.

You have to admire Hasse’s gall, considering how the WEA, the state’s largest teacher union, has failed so completely in its responsibilities toward teachers and students in making them ready to pass the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning).

And here the WEA is on the brink of filing a lawsuit against the state to require the Legislature to bring its definition of basic education up to date, even as a bunch of school superintendents are contemplating the same thing. This on top of the initiative drive to increase the state sales tax a penny and earmark that billion dollars a year for schools.

When the courts in 1977 ordered lawmakers to define and fully fund basic ed, what they ultimately came up with was everything that’s being taught now. To fulfill that obligation these days would include the cost of computers and other technology.

In the meantime, passing WASL, mandatory for high school graduation, hangs over the schools like that giant octopus that got John Wayne in “Reap the Wild Wind.” The state PTA just released a study that estimates it will cost from $179 million to $2.1 billion to get all students in the state up to par to pass it.

Don’t ask me why money is the only answer teachers ever come up with in dealing with the shortcomings of our educational system and explaining why so many high school graduates have to be tutored before they can be accepted by a college. I know that not only has the number of administrators gotten out of hand, so has the cost. Many superintendents make more than the governor ($142,286, going to $145,132 in September) or the Supreme Court justices.($134,584, going to $137,276). And their perks are outrageous.

The super at Peninsula two years ago was making a total salary of $132,215 and his perks included the option of working up to 15 extra days beyond his regular contracted work year at $548 a day, 20 days of vacation a year and 12 of sick leave, up to 10 days annual leave for professional development, a $600 travel allowance for Pierce and Kitsap counties and mileage outside those areas, family insurance and life insurance benefits.

I was comforted, though, on reading the first batch of letters to the editor following news stories about potential lawsuits by the school forces.

Some excerpts: “I have a hard time understanding why it would take an additional $2.1 billion just to teach our children the fundamentals needed to pass a standardized test. Do we need to re- teach the teachers the basics before they can teach students? Or rewrite text books to remove some of the opinions that have replaced facts over the years?”

Our schools need to focus on getting back to basics in the curriculum. The answer isn’t suing the state for more money to throw at a system that doesn’t work. The answer is fixing the system. How much taxpayers’ money would be spent to hire lawyers to sue the state? How many books or computers could you buy for that amount?”

“I believe if we rolled back methods and curriculum to what we used 30 years ago, we’d see an immediate improvement in education. Do our school boards/superintendents really believe a legal suit is going to generate a positive reaction from our citizens and politicians?”

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69,. Hansville, Wa., 98340.).