Setting achievement goals for Kansas public schools is a tricky proposition.

The goals should be high but not impossible to meet. They shouldn’t be so low that they don’t challenge state educators to try harder but not so high that they invite lawsuits from parents or students who claim the state has failed to meet its own standards.

A couple of prominent state officials – who also happen to be lawyers – have scheduled a meeting next week with members of the Kansas State Board of Education to discuss education standards. The two – Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood – plan to ask board members to change they way the state determines whether schools are doing a good job.

The current school accreditation regulations require that, in future years, every student must reach a proficient level in reading, math and science. Although that goal is consistent with the federal ideal expressed in No Child Left Behind, Vratil, a key lawmaker on school finance, says it’s impossible to meet. Changing the standard isn’t an end-run around the law, he said, it’s reality.

On the other side of the question are people like Bill Wagnon, a Democrat, who represents much of Lawrence on the state board. He says the state should be paying more attention to achieving proficiency and less attention to protecting itself from liability.

It seems there must be some middle ground on this issue. Obviously, the state doesn’t want to dumb down its standards to the point that they don’t challenge educators and students. On the other hand, the state doesn’t want to be dealing with a host of lawsuits or continuing conflict with the Kansas Supreme Court.

Perhaps the key here is that education standards shouldn’t be based on what is easy for the state to achieve or afford. They shouldn’t be determined primarily on the basis of what is politically “possible.” Most importantly, they should focus on pushing all schools to do better than they might have thought they could.

Having 100 percent proficiency in math, reading and science is a wonderful goal, one that all schools should strive toward but probably not one they will ever reach. The only way to ensure such an accomplishment would be to set standards so low that they would hardly be worth meeting.

The state board and the Kansas Legislature are under intense scrutiny by the state Supreme Court, which has ordered them to find a way to justify state funding for education on the actual costs of providing that education, not on an arbitrary figure arrived at through political compromise in the Legislature.

Arriving at that figure will be a challenge, but simply dumbing down the standards to make them easy to meet isn’t the answer. Legislators and state board members must work together to find a solution that addresses the court’s concerns and provides challenging goals for the state’s K-12 schools.